Help identifying writing on a Russian? bark painting

September 27, 2014 11:04 PM

It is a little painting on bark. Trying to find out more information about it. But I am being stymied by not really knowing Russian characters while trying to google the writing on it. Pics inside. Thanks!

Front of picture with signature
Label on the back

posted by jeribus to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Best answer: Well, I don't speak Russian, but I know the alphabet a bit.

I think the label says:

Картиа на бересте
Людмила Гулимова
г. Санкт-Петербург

(I think the last part says St. Petersburg, and the middle line is a name.)

Google Translate gives:
Picture of Beres
Lyudmila Gulimova
the St. Petersburg

And based on the label, I think the signature is

Гулимова

(which is the Gulimova name from the label.)


The tricky part is that printed Cyrillic characters often are shaped very differently from the handwritten versions, and both are often different from the italic. If someone who actually speaks Russian comes along, they will be much more helpful than me.
posted by mekily at 11:25 PM on September 27, 2014

Best answer: The back label says 'Painting on elm. Lyudmila Gulimova. St Petersburg. ' The front is a signature Gulimova L 2003.
posted by bsdfish at 11:28 PM on September 27, 2014

Response by poster: You guys are awesome. Zero to 100 in under half an hour.
posted by jeribus at 11:47 PM on September 27, 2014

Minor clarification: берёста [beryosta] is birchbark, not elm.
posted by languagehat at 9:21 AM on September 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

(The two dots indicating it's [yo] rather than [e] aren't normally written in Russian—which is a pain in the ass, by the way—but I used them for clarity.)
posted by languagehat at 9:22 AM on September 28, 2014

Languagehat, you're totally right about it being birch, not elm. My tree-fu is weak.
posted by bsdfish at 10:41 PM on September 28, 2014