Alexander Kayumov Nov 28, 2012:

"Подсчитали", then, can also refer to the tight budget constraints that prevented the Democrats from making good their promises. So sort of "once they looked in the coffers, they cried".

In the original idioms, "подсчитали" refers to the bill that one gets at the end of a party, so has a strong monetary / financial meaning. (Although, of course, it could mean counting other things depending on how the idiom is used in a particular instance.)

Alexander Kayumov Nov 28, 2012:

Well, this changes the picture. Context rules!

Within this context, it clearly has the standard negative meaning. Mine was a neat theory though, wasn't it? :)

Then, I guess, it simply means that with their unexpected success the Democrats "bit off more than they could chew", like you said. It wasn't as bad as a case of being "dizzy with success" (which, like CopperKettle mentioned, has a strong negative connotation), but the hangover after all the winning and the initial joy was hard.

James McVay (asker) Nov 28, 2012:

Mikhail That's probably true. Logically, it would take them time to realize the reality of the situation. Don't you love it when authors try to be cute?

Mikhail Kropotov Nov 28, 2012:

So, посчитали refers to their evaluation of the years they've been in power since winning the election.

James McVay (asker) Nov 28, 2012:

More context Can't have too much...

В предвыборном манифесте ДПЯ наобещала избирателям намного больше, чем реально могла сделать в качестве правящей партии, ограниченной, помимо всего прочего, возможностями государственного бюджета. Одни популистские лозунги – вроде отмены платы за проезд по скоростным дорогам – были отрицательно восприняты самими избирателями, поскольку в результате такой меры местные бюджеты не досчитались бы весомых поступлений. Другие, вроде повышения размеров пособий на детей, легли непомерным бременем на госбюджет, внутренний дефицит которого и так достиг рекордного для развитых стран размера, в 2 раза перекрыв ВВП. Наконец, все карты смешало Великое восточнояпонское землетрясение 11 марта 2011 г., нанесшее стране колоссальный ущерб и потребовавшее несравненно больших сумм (в полном объеме их до сих пор невозможно точно подсчитать) на ее восстановление.


This follows immediately after «подсчитали - прослезились» in the same paragraph. Clearly, the election brought the DPJ a lot of grief. I think the author intends to say that they were initially happy with their victory but then came to realize they had bit off more than they could chew.

Alexander Kayumov Nov 28, 2012:

:) Well, the dizziness is meant as a negative thing, of course; but the success that can cause such a dizziness is a major one. So the expression has a positive connotation re the success itself.

But, again, the author is saying that the success wasn't a landslide that can result in dizziness - but still elicited a few happy tears.

Artyom Timeyev Nov 28, 2012:

"Dizzy with success" has a negative meaning; the cliche was coined by Stalin as a smokescreen to retract somewhat in his collectivization policy that turned out a disaster for the economy. So it may well mean the long term consequences of the Democratic party policy after its victory.

Artyom Timeyev Nov 28, 2012:

Maybe the author means not the results of the elections per se, but what followed, i.e. the party's achievements in the following years, after it has gained the position of power. Thus it all started well but ended sourly, with little "to write home about" in the end. P.S. + James (the asker) writes (see below) that they failed in their promise of budget sparing reforms (after sealing the win).

Alexander Kayumov Nov 28, 2012:

to CopperKettle I'm afraid I disagree. The author has two idiomatic expressions here ("головокружение от успехов" и "подсчитали-прослезились"). He is clearly talking about "the unexpected success of the Democrats in 2009" and saying that although the first expression is too strong, the second is not.

It looks like the author simply out-smarted himself / herself: wanted to use two well-known and apropos idioms, but has misused one of those. :)

Again, not that uncommon... If this had been Tolstoi or even Akunin, I would have had serious doubts about my scenario. But a journalist? Completely believable. You should read some of what today's high school seniors are writing!..

Alexander Kayumov Nov 28, 2012:

I think the author is definitly not implying anything negative. The structure and wording of the sentences are pretty clear: "The success was unexpected. I can't go as far as saying that they were dizzy from their own success, but it was clearly a case of dropping a few happy tears after the final results were announced."

Something like this.

It's not uncommon for people to mix up their idioms and common expressions... And modern Russian journalists are not known for their exceptionally high language standards either.

Again, the phrase is certainly not intended to be used this way. But everything else, in my opinion, points to it being simply misused by this author.

Vaddy Peters Nov 28, 2012:

The expression is not typically used this way - negative result is usually implied. Here the author obviously tries to attach some negative flavour to the positive outcome. Still, what its English equivalent may be?

Alexander Kayumov Nov 28, 2012:

I think it's a bit trickier than it seems Other common forms of this idiom include:
- "Ели, пили - веселились, подсчитали - прослезились",
- "Все гуляли — веселились, подсчитали — прослезились",
- "Пировали, веселились, подсчитали, прослезились (и полезли за платком)", etc.

BTW, the source for the expression in the text is most definitely the idiom itself (one of its many variants), not the book's title.

This roughly means that partying was fun, but paying the bills - not so much. So usually this expression is used to refer to the sobering effect of looking at the consequences of one's actions.

However, it looks very probable that in this particular instance the Russian author has used this idiom incorrectly, taking the tears of sorrow to mean tears of joy, and so with the exact opposite meaning of the phrase's actual meaning. He is thus simply saying that although the Democrats' success wasn't as extreme as to warrant the use of the phrase "Dizzy with Success" (the title of an article by Joseph Stalin), they were pretty happy about the final numbers.

Angela Greenfield Nov 28, 2012:

James, I am not familiar with the subject, but you may very well be correct.

James McVay (asker) Nov 28, 2012:

My first approximation "I can't say that they were dizzy with success, but when they realized what they had done, they may have been moved to tears."

Thoughts?

James McVay (asker) Nov 28, 2012:

Angela In their election campaign the DPJ had promised more than they could realistically deliver without greatly increasing the budget deficit — which they did. The "прослезились" may beintended to suggest that they suffered a pyrrhic Victory.

Mikhail Kropotov Nov 28, 2012:

But Angela, it says "Успех демократов... был неожиданным прежде всего для них самих". This would imply that their results surprised them in a good way, despite the original meaning of the saying.

James McVay (asker) Nov 28, 2012:

From a book title Evidently, it's taken from the translated title of a book by the Japanese author Saikaku Ihara: "Подсчитали - прослезились бы, да некому".

Angela Greenfield Nov 28, 2012:

This is part of an idiomatic expression: "Торговали - веселились, подсчитали - прослезились." Meaning that someone had fun doing something, but when they looked at results, those were not so good.
I think in this case the author means that the number of votes that the democrats received was very close to the opposing party(parties) and there was nothing to be particularly happy about.

Mikhail Kropotov Nov 28, 2012:

Видимо, имеются в виду слезы радости.