From: Rawley Grau Newsgroups: alt.uu.lang.russian.misc Subject: Re: Negations Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 15:39:55 -0500 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Message-ID: References: <8rfh6.483$hi2.975@nntpserver.swip.net><3a8a3965.161272@news.online.ru> in article 3a8a3965.161272@news.online.ru, Nika at nikovera@mail.ru wrote on 2/14/01 2:54 AM: > I agree with Igor. The answer to your question is (a). > Double negatives ARE used in Russian, but not in this > particular case. > Translation will depend on context. Quick suggestion: "It is > not worth singing about anything but love". Or how about > this: "If you intend to sing about anything other than love, > don't bother" ;). > > Nika Не о любви не стоит петь... This sounds to me like a response to someone who jadedly said: "Love isn't worth singing about! Sing about something important!" The poet replies: "Many things are not worth singing about, but love isn't one of them." I expect to hear something like: "Не стоит петь о войне" or "Не стоит петь о политике." Though I agree that this does seem strange. Perhaps there is a typo, and the text should read: "Но о любви не стоит петь"? By the way, the so-called "double negative" in Russian is always expressed by the use of a negated verb with "ne" and a word or phrase with the particle "ni-". Sentences using "ne ... ne..." reflect the negation of a negation, just as we have in English: "When he asked you about your wife, why couldn't you just not answer?" "Когда он спросил тебя о жене, почему ты не мог просто не отвечать?" Rawley