the world and its mistress

link 19.04.2006 20:38

Subject: the world and its mistress

Подскажите, пож-та, как лучше перевести the world and its mistress в следующем контексте:
On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn (The Great Gatsby, the first paragraph of Ch. IV).
В русском переводе книги даётся вариант "весь свет" или что-то подобное. Если брать этот вариант, при чём здесь mistress? Спасибо.

нефью ✉

link 19.04.2006 20:44

all the world and his wife Meaning, 'everybody' - though the phrase is in decline now after the feminism of the 1970s. Christopher Anstey in The New Bath Guide (1766) has: 'How he welcomes at once all the world and his wife,/And how civil to folk he ne'er saw in his life.' Jonathan Swift included it in Polite Conversation (1738): 'Who were the Company? - Why; there was all the World and his Wife.' There is an equivalent French expression: 'All the world and his father'. A letter from Lord Byron to Thomas Moore (29 February 1816) has: 'I am at war with "all the world and his wife" or rather, "all the world and my wife" are at war with me.' From F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chap. 4 (1926): 'On Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn.'

Dim ✉

link 19.04.2006 21:28

Thanks a lot!

Дакота ✉

link 19.04.2006 22:33

Другой англ. эквивалент - everyone and their dog;
или по-русски: "жук и жаба"

Dim ✉

link 21.04.2006 5:14

2Дакота: Насколько понимаю, everyone and their dog - вариант устаревший, тогда как (all) the world and his wife хоть редко, но употребляется?

Дакота ✉

link 21.04.2006 5:53

everyone and their dog встречала несколько раз в последнее время :)