# каплей



## Jervoltage

Hi,

А над городом ночь, а над ночью луна,
И сегодня луна каплей крови красна.
Кино - Печаль

Please, why is капля in the instrumental case? Could you give me a literal translation of the second line?

Many thanks.


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## Maroseika

This is very unusual expression. I think it is a contamination of луна выглядит каплей крови and луна красна (как капля крови).


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## Ma_linka

Night came over the city,
And the moon is up in the sky.
Today it is as red as
Drops of human blood.

This is the poetic language.


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## JSV

This is a really compex case. There are two issues. First one is that, as you know, sometimes sentences in songs are not very correct (or used very unusually) just in order to be more emphatic. And as the result not always clear. On the other hand word "*красен/красна*" is not simple one.

What is for sure is that in this case it is completely clear that moon is like a drop of blood. On the other hand if we need to translate it then it is important to understand what exacly song writer (Viktor Tsoi) meant.

I think about two possible variants:

1)* as red as a drop of blood* - this variant is quite simple

2) This case is quite complex to explain. There is a very rare/old word in Russian "*красен/красна*" which could mean "*[good/beautiful] because of*". We have an proverb "*Долг платежом красен*" that means "*debt is a good thing because/when/if it is repaid*" (as you can see in original phrase "*платежом*" is in the instrumental case too).

If we take a look on this sentence from this point of view then I would translate it as: "*moon is beautiful because it looks like a drop of blood*". I mean that in this case "*красна*" does not mean "*red*", but "*beautiful*" (and "*red*" just as an additional effect).


I think both meanings are available, but I'd rather choose the second one.


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## Jervoltage

Thank you all very much - excellent!


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## abcdefgh1234

Hi, this is simple. The Instrumental case can mean that the subject is something else: она обернулась волчицей, он прибежал молодцом, она стала советником. Or pretends to be: я вою волком. DDT: Черный пес Петербург, время сжалось луною. Poetic language is a clearer and more perfect version of regular Russian, so it uses these niceties for better and more concise expression of thought. Bye. PS: beauty? Too complicated, in my opinion. Why is suffering beautiful? "Just in order to sound emphatic"? I translate: "просто чтобы выпендриться". Не соглашусь.  Bye.


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## JSV

I'm very glad that we have answered Jervoltage's question. But in order to make logic about "beautiful" case more clear (and possibly more helpful to Jervoltage) I assume the following logic sequence would help:

*В качестве доктора он хорош, а в качестве друга - бесполезен* =>
*Будучи доктором он хорош, а будучи другом - бесполезен =>
Доктором он хорош, другом - бесполезен*

As per moon:

*В качестве капли крови луна красива* =>
*Выглядя каплей крови, луна красива =>
Луна, [выглядя/когда выглядит/**будучи**] каплей крови, красива =>
Луна каплей крови **красива **=>*
*Луна каплей крови красна*


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## ayna123

Каплей крови красна = red like a blood drop
Here красна has nothing to do with 'beautiful"
It's Viktor Tsoy - he had strange turns. Therefore no need to wonder why he used instrumental case here.


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## Drink

Am I the only one who thinks that this is a perfectly normal use of the instrumental case?


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## ayna123

Drink said:


> Am I the only one who thinks that this is a perfectly normal use of the instrumental case?


Do you translate красна here as beautiful or red?


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## Drink

ayna123 said:


> Do you translate красна here as beautiful or red?



As red.


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## ayna123

Drink said:


> As red.


So, what normality you see here for instrumental case?


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## Drink

ayna123 said:


> So, what normality you see here for instrumental case?



It says what the moon is (figuratively) red with.


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## ayna123

Drink said:


> It says what the moon is (figuratively) red with.


Or he likens the moon to a drop of blood? Doubtedly he meant some blooddrop got on the moonview and made it red.
It was said just to keep the rhyme and form of syllabus


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## Drink

ayna123 said:


> Or he likens the moon to a drop of blood? Doubtedly he meant some blooddrop got on the moonview and made it red.
> It was said just to keep the rhyme and form of syllabus



Did you notice the word "figuratively"?


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## ayna123

Drink said:


> Did you notice the word "figuratively"?


It doesn't matter - figuratively or not. 
Something is /color/ as /thing/
Simply likening.
Instrumental case is forcedly used there.


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## Drink

ayna123 said:


> It doesn't matter - figuratively or not.
> Something is /color/ as /thing/
> Simply likening.
> Instrumental case is forcedly used there.



[....] He (may have) meant that the moon looked _as if_ a drop of blood turned the moon red.


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## rusita preciosa

I also do not see anything unusual in this expression.

There are many expressions like *волком выть *(to be in a very dificult situation; lit., howl like a wolf)

Compare with this Akhmatova verse:

И слава *лебедью плыла* [floated like a swan]
Сквозь золотистый дым.
А ты, любовь, всегда была
Отчаяньем моим.


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## ayna123

Drink said:


> [....] He (may have) meant that the moon looked _as if_ a drop of blood turned the moon red.


That's why I said: Doubtedly he meant some blooddrop got on the moonview and made it red.


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## Drink

ayna123 said:


> That's why I said: Doubtedly he meant some blooddrop got on the moonview and made it red.



Do you know what "as if" means? I'll tell you in Russian: Луна выглядела *как будто бы* она была покрашена кровью.


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## ayna123

Drink said:


> Do you know what "as if" means? I'll tell you in Russian: Луна выглядела *как будто бы* она покрашена кровью.


Sometimes the moon looks really red.
He likened the red moon to a blooddrop - as if a blooddrop is in the sky instead of moon.
Why to speculate on this "drops turning something red"???


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## Drink

ayna123 said:


> Sometimes the moon looks really red.
> He likened the red moon to a blooddrop - as if a blooddrop is in the sky instead of moon.
> Why to speculate on this "drops turning something red"???



That's the same thing to me. You're over-analyzing it.


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## Ma_linka

ayna123 said:


> Каплей крови красна = red like a blood drop
> *Here красна has nothing to do with 'beautiful"*
> It's Viktor Tsoy - he had strange turns. Therefore no need to wonder why he used instrumental case here.



Totally agree with you. This is what I was trying to say in my previous messages.


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## Jervoltage

I did not know that the instrumental could also denote similarity - much obliged.


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