As cases of bad translation go, this one is on the funny, or rather scary (depends on how one looks at it), side of things. A Russian railroad giant, Russian Railways, says using the lavatory at one of its terminal train stations will cost you your soul.
“The cost of the service is the soul”
At least that’s what is written in the English part of a bilingual warning, the photo of which was published on Twitter by an amused user, who said it served as an irrefutable proof that Russian Railways is a branch of hell itself.
What the note is meant to say is that taking a shower costs 200 rubles (about $3). But the Russian word for ‘shower’ (dush) in one declension (Russian nouns are pesky like that) is the same as the word for ‘soul’ (dusha). Add some computer translation, stir – and there you have a devilish, if somewhat unattractive offer.
The person who snapped a photo said it was taken in Volgograd, one of the host cities of the FIFA World Cup.
“Foreign fans were somewhat disheartened [by it],” he explained to Russian Railways, when the company asked for details.
Hopefully this was a glitch, as it seems to be.
yahoo
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