Rachel Douglas Sep 20, 2013:

In such situations... ...as translating, one should attempt to find an English expression which captures the description or concept that is in the source language. You are laying down some categorical rules here: "must be kept simple," "broader term is preferable." In the first instance, there's nothing not-simple about "supply train," the sense of which is almost identical to that of обоз, and which is known by anyone who played with toy soldiers, etc. as a kid. As for your second assertion, I disagree: I think that one should not use a "broader term" if that term renders the translation inaccurate. And обоз is not a "specific type of means of transportation," it is an assemblage of them, known in English as a train or convoy, and it may carry all the things you mention. Perhaps somewhere it was used to denote one cart (?), but generally it is this collective entity. Ozhegov begins his definitions with "группа" and "совокупность". Furthermore, in this particular context, writing it as a single cart would look silly in the list with the plural horses and vehicles. I do believe you have misconstrued the Russian, and I was trying to help, but I don't want to debate this elementary matter further.

Naveen Kar Sep 20, 2013:

@Rachel Douglas In such situations, much broader term is preferable. You see, in tougher terrains the army units use different logistic means for carrying different requirements. It can be machine guns, food supply, weaponry, injured soldiers etc., so instead of specific type of transport mean, so IMO general term could be better. At the same type, обоз also means cart in addition to wagon or train.
Moreover, considering this context the cart seems to be driven by jeeps, porters (soldiers), horses.

Rachel Douglas Sep 19, 2013:

@ Naveen Kar With all due respect, the thing to be loaded and the word to be translated is обоз, rather than, say, телега.

Naveen Kar Sep 19, 2013:

Keep things simple The translation must be kept simple and understandable to the target audience and end user instead of venturing for various complex options that may just confuse him instead of helping.

So, we translators must try to keep things simple as much as possible. That's why I used CART. It must be a single CART (which can't cross the swamp) and any talk about CONVOY or GROUP OF CARTS or SUPPLY TRAINS may come later. Very simple is that.