In cleaning last week we came across this poster in a group of materials with no documentation. We were at a bit of a loss of what this could possibly be until we spent a little time with our new favorite web tool, Google Translate. Letter by letter this:
сейлем – симферополь
дружьа на 45 параллели
персоналЬная выставка фотожурналиста газеты стэйтсмэн джорнэл г. сейлем
(сша, штат орегон рона купера)
became the much more decipherable:
Salem – Simferopol
Become a Friend on the 45th parallel
Personal exhibition of photojournalist Steytsmen Journal newspaper, the Salem
(USA, Oregon Ron Cooper)
So, we are looking at an announcement for a photo exhibit by Ron Cooper celebrating Salem and its sister city Simferopol, Ukraine.
Google translate is pretty good (definitely gets the gist of the message).
дружба means “friendship” (it should be the letter б and not ь) and the г. before Salem is short for город (well, in this case города) which means “city.”
So I’d say it means
Salem – Simferopol
Friendship on the 45th parallel
Personal exhibition of a photojournalist from the Statesman Journal newspaper in the city of Salem (USA, Oregon, Ron Cooper)
Thank you for the update!