Яблоко раздора: the apple of discord, a bone of contention

Яблоко in Russian is not only a fruit, it is also anything relatively small and round. Глазное яблоко (literally, "eye apple") is what we call the eyeball. Державное яблоко (literally, "apple of rule") is not the emperor's favorite snack, but it is the globe he holds along with the scepter. Яблоко на шпиле is the globe at the top of a flag pole or other spire. Яблоко мишени (literally, "apple of the target") is a bull's eye. This can be used literally or figuratively: Он подарил ей кольцо и попал в самое яблочко. (He gave her a ring that was the perfect present.)

There are other kinds of non-apple apples. Адамово яблоко is Adam's apple, the slight protuberance in a man's neck. Legend has it that Adam choked on a piece of the apple Eve gave him and that piece of apple is still stuck there. And then there is земляное яблоко (ground apple), also called чёртово (the devil's) or содомское (Sodom's). This is what Russians once called one of their national foods -- the potato. Apparently, when it was brought from South America to Europe and then to Russia, Slavs were sickened by eating it raw and cursed it as a devilish and heathen food.

The apple has made its way into a number of Russian expressions. The most common is яблочко от яблони недалеко падает (literally, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," which can be translated as "like father, like son," or "like mother, like daughter.") This is the sort of annoying expression you come out with when your best friend is astonished to discover that her husband, son of a hard-drinking louse, turns out to be a hard-drinking louse himself. Less common is the expression яблок на сосне не бывает (literally, "apples don't grow on pine trees.") This is not a description of a pineapple, but rather an assertion that something is impossible.

When you and several hundred or thousand other people are packed like sardines in some place, you can say яблоку негде упасть (literally, "an apple has no place to fall.") Была такая давка, что яблоку негде упасть. (It was so crowded that I could hardly breathe.)

In politics -- workplace, gender, and state -- you often hear about яблоко раздора (the apple of discord). This is the golden apple Paris presented to Aphrodite when asked to choose the most beautiful goddess. Aphrodite promised him the love of the beautiful Helen and got the apple; Paris got the girl. In Russian, the expression is used to describe any disagreement that cannot be resolved. Арктика превращается в яблоко раздора. (The Artic is becoming a point of contention.)

This is very bad news indeed. After all, the apple of discord eventually led to the Trojan War.

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based interpreter and translator.