Russian to english.

[mikezikemikezike]

I believe this to be the correct translation.
Воюйте хорошую драку
fight the good fight

just wondering if anyone knew for sure. its for a school paper due at the end of the semester.

thanks
mike.

[svernoux]

The translation is alright, at least as far as I can judge with only one sentence.

[sv]

yes, this tranlation is ok.

[ALEXD]

Your translation is not right at all
"fight the good fight" means to fight for just cause, right?
so, in russian that is gonnna be like: бороться за справедливое дело.
Your version seems to be a straight translation
Hope this will helps

[svernoux]

ALEXD, if you think this translation is not right, it would be more helpful to give a better translation or at least an explanation of the Russian sentence.

[ALEXD]

ALEXD, if you think this translation is not right, it would be more helpful to give a better translation or at least an explanation of the Russian sentence.

I'm terribly sorry, but it seems to me that i did it (at least i gave the correct translation). The meaning of the Russian sentence....? Which one? Mine or "воюйте хорошую драку"? The last one has no sence at all!

[ALEXD]

In addition, i think that here was some misunderstanding. The wanted translation was from English to Rusian, not from Russian to English.

[sv]

"fight the good fight" means to fight for just cause, right?

no. the problem is in english. it doesn't mean 'to fight for just cause' it means 'to make a good fight'. and 'good fight' is a thing far from any causes. it is just that same 'хорошая драка' or in modern language 'хороший бой'.

"воюйте хорошую драку" has sense, though in modern russian no one would ever say something like that. they would say, 'дайте хороший бой' as for me i think this phrase could be more popular in XVIII-XIX centuries, and even more i think it could be a quotation (какой-нибудь Суворов вполне мог произнесть нечто подобное, вполне )

so the translation given is absolutely correct. it's literally 'fight a good fight'.

[alex51]

Don't fight" just" because of a translation, please...

[sv]

you laugh, but it's true , any native speaker if he didn't get used to such a language needs some time before he could understand properly what this phrase could mean

it's not modern russian. i wonder why teachers ask students to translate such phrases. just as a joke maybe or trying to test their skills on something unusual. you can't use it. it is incorrect now and makes no sense. such phrases can be only found in books about history with quotations of Suvorov, Kutuzov, or Piter the Great, etc.

ALEXD just made a mistake in English. 'fight the good fight' doesn't mean 'to fight for justice'. and saying that such a russian phrase doesn't make sense to him,.. ok i had to think for a while to understand what this phrase means. and he is right in modern language it's incorrect, you can't say so. but it's ok for russian languge of xviii or the beginning of xix century. those times they preferred to express their toughts in a bit different manner.

[ANTHOS]

In English, the expression is "to put up a good fight" ie to make an attempt to fight for something rather than accepting it. usually it's used when the person has lost.

[sv]

ok i see
i'll tell what russian воюйте хорошую драку means.
it means - fight as hard as you can, give a battle enimies will remember.
there is nothing about reasons, just 'give a great battle', 'fight good'.

in modern russian this phrase doesn't sound normal. no one says now 'воюйте драку'. in modern language the closest expression is 'устройте хорошую драку'. 'воевать что-либо' is an archaism.

i don't know how you can properly translate archaism creating the idea that it is namely an archaism into any other language. normal translation of a meaning of this phrase is 'give the good/great fight/battle'. but literal one is 'fight the good fight'. and this literal one (as for me) gives the closest feeling on how this phrase in understood, what reaction it produces in native russian mind as not quite a normal phrase.

[svernoux]

In addition, i think that here was some misunderstanding. The wanted translation was from English to Rusian, not from Russian to English.

Maybe there was a misunderstanding, ALEX, but then the misunderstanding comes from Mike, becauses he gave a sentence in Russian, then a sentence in English and asked for correction. Usually, when you work with translation, you give the source language FIRST and THEN the translation. So when you read Mike's message, there is no doubt that he wants a translation from Russian into English. Except if Mike himself asked his question in the wrong manner, but the only way to know is to ask him, which I doubt we can ever do.

sv, thanks for your explanations! My husband sais as well this sentence made absolutely no sense to him, so I believe you when you say it's old Russian!

[ALEXD]

Old Russian? Stop kidding me. Souvorov? I thought that he "грамоте обучался". I swear, this sentence never made any sence.
And i'm still not sure (however, many thanks for explanations) about the meaning of English sentence. It's an idiom, right? So, i checked my dictionary: to fight the good fight — бороться за справедливое дело

[ANTHOS]

Mike's email is a bit odd. He writes as a native English speaker but the expression he uses in Enlgish is not very natural. It seems he is looking for a literal translation of the Russian text.

But if he does not return to clarify, we are none the wiser.


PS However, as Alex says 'fight the good fight' would be more likely to be interpreted as 'Fighting for the Right Cause' than 'Putting Up A Good Fight '