As cases of bad translation go, this one is on the hilarious side of things (or sinister, if you think about it). A Russian railroad giant says using the lavatory at one of its terminal stations will cost your 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, and not a really clever ploy by some emissary of the inferno.
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