"You don't need to be a saint to make pipkins/pots"???

[mongo460]

I've always been confused by Razumhikin's line in Part four, chapter IV: While discussing how he has gained enough publishing experience to start a publishing company, he says:

"For nearly two years I’ve been scuttling about among the publishers, and now I know every detail of their business. You need not be a saint to make pots, believe me! And why, why should we let our chance slip!" (from the Garnett)


In another translation (the Coulson), he uses "pipkins" instead of "pots". I assume the change was made for a specific reason- maybe idiomatic clarity- but I still don't have any clue what it means.

[cacian]

mango do you have the full translation to see it in context?

[hillwalker]

A 'pipkin' was a small earthenware pot - the change is presumably a choice by the translator to have the term fit in with a specific setting.

I think his statement about not needing to be a saint to make pots is the equivalent of today's "It's not rocket science". He's seen how easy it is to run his own publishing company.

H

[mongo460]

Thanks!

I hadn't thought of it in the simplicity context, mostly because I didn't see the connection between saints and pots. I just think it's a bit strange, because I couldn't find the idiom in any other context (maybe it was just an ephemeral Russian phrase?). Honestly, though, I'm perplexed by the change to pipkins- unless it's more related to the Russian- because it's quite ineffectual when the phrase seems odd anyway. It's just something that's bothered me for the past week because I can't find any context for it, and it keeps tormenting me.