concept
"Psia krew" (psia krew) -- Polish oath
psia krew
also: пся крев, psia krew, psia krev
A vulgar Polish oath, literally "dog's blood," used as a general-purpose curse comparable to "damn it"/"God damn." Lyashkevsky, a Pole, resorts to it and to other Polish curses ("laidaki," "cob ich diabli wzieli" -- roughly "scoundrels, may the devils take them") when his anger outruns his Russian, his accent thickening as he goes; preserved untranslated and unsoftened as an accurate rendering of the character's speech, not censored for its vulgarity.
Reading notes
- Obscure People §8 Psia krew!
"Пся крев" (psia krew), literally "dog's blood," is a vulgar Polish oath comparable in force to "God damn it"; it appears here and recurs (sections 10, 17, 54) as Lyashkevsky's characteristic curse, along with other Polish invective ("laidaki," "cob ich diabli wzieli," roughly "scoundrels, may the devils take them") that surfaces once his anger in Russian gives way to his native tongue. Preserved untranslated and unsoftened as period-accurate characterization of the speaker, not a slur against a group -- it is Lyashkevsky's own oath in his own language.