concept
Shilishper (asp)
shilishper
also: шилишпер, asp, aspius aspius
A large predatory river fish (Aspius aspius, known in Russian angling as shilishper or zhereh) that Denis says does not live in his home river and needs open water -- the fish the magistrate mockingly brings up again after Denis's rambling account of what will and won't bite without a sinker. The English translation of this story renders shilishper inconsistently, once as 'chub' and once as 'zander.'
Reading notes
- The Malefactor §16 a chub will bite
The Russian here is шилишпер (shilishper), a name for the asp (Aspius aspius), a large predatory fish that sometimes takes surface bait without a sinker -- not the golavl/chub, which is a related but distinct species. This translation renders shilishper as 'chub' here but as 'zander' at loc. 45; see loc. 46 for golavl (chub) itself.
- The Malefactor §17 chub
Continues the magistrate's exasperated echo of Denis's digression about шилишпер (shilishper/asp); see the note at loc. 16.
- The Malefactor §45 zander
The magistrate again uses шилишпер (shilishper/asp), rendered here as 'zander' -- a different translation choice from loc. 16-17, where the same Russian word is rendered 'chub.' See the note at loc. 16 for the underlying species.
- The Malefactor §46 zander
Denis echoes the magistrate's шилишпер (shilishper/asp): 'We don't have zander around here.'