Munchkin Russia, or From Russia with Linguistics

Grey Little Wolf

For instance, the wolf reference we mentioned earlier. It comes from a terrifying lullaby that is known by every Russian child:

Sleep sleep sleep

Don’t lie too close to the edge of the bed

Or a grey little wolf will come

And grab you by the flank,

Drag you into the woods

Underneath the willow root.

It’s totally understandable why a mother wouldn’t want a child to fall from the bed, but creating a fully fledged phobia is probably not the best way to prevent that! It’s like with the English “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Falling asleep definitely stops being the top priority in a kid’s mind. 

In the Russian edition, the card is named Grey Little Wolf. While the name refers to the lullaby, the image is another layer of the joke. “Little wolf” sounds exactly like a “whirling (or spinning) top” in Russian. Additionally, if you’re affected by its Bad Stuff, the wolf “grabs you by the flank” and you lose a level. Thus, there is a clever visual and semantic entendre! 

There was one big problem for the translation: no one outside of Russia would know about the lullaby, and even if we used the “grabs you by the flank” phrase, an English-speaking player wouldn’t understand the context.

So, for the translation, we had to abandon the lullaby reference and play with the remaining wolf and whirling top. You’ll see the result to the right.

Three Brown Bears

Another case: a fairy tale that you might know as “Goldilocks and The Three Bears.”

In Russian folklore, the bears suffering the intruder are the same, but the girl is called “Masha.” “Masha” is short for the female name “Maria,” while the Russian word for “bear” sounds exactly like a nickname for the name “Michael” — “Misha.”

In the Russian version, it’s a -3 to your Level if you have the same name as a female character from a fairy tale, and a +3 if your name is Misha.

What should we do when there are very few Mishas in America? 

We had an idea to pursue Goldilocks and her blonde hair: then, all blonde players would have a -3 modifier, and all brown-haired players would get a bonus. However, we realized that instead of being activated occasionally, this effect would be activated almost every time.

For the English edition, we decided to drop the sufferings of bears and let everyone come up with a fairy tale with their name in it.

Your Carpetliness

And let’s talk about the most sacred one for today.

Back in the USSR, everyone had many carpets. People put rugs on the floor, hung them on the walls (preferably on several walls at once). The more carpets you had, the more prepared you were for the winter and the wealthier your family was. 

The tradition is still strong, especially among elderly people, but youngsters are not so far removed either. Try googling “Rugs in Russian culture”, and you’ll quickly realize that it’s a special thing to take selfies with a good ol’ rug in the background. 

The closest translation of the Russian version would’ve been “Your Carpetliness,” but we needed to share that obvious Russian urge, so we went for another option instead (see image to the right).

As you can see, trying to explain local memes, traditions, or superstitions is a great challenge, especially the ones involving multiple layers of humor and double entendres. This kind of cultural localization is the most tricky and, therefore, the most rewarding of all.

Is there anything that you would’ve translated differently? Share your ideas with us, comrades!