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excerpt from a song:

"Ты спалила наверняка как он смотрит издалека".

the direct translation of спалила or спали́ть is "to burn", however it does not make sense in this sentence. According to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C#Russian, спали́ть as a slang means "to catch someone doing something illegal or disallowed".

so should the sentence be translated to?

"you caught how he looked from afar"

Thanks!

curiousmind
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    this is a primitive slang. Well, in this contex : "You founded out, you disclose, you seen..." The metaphorical idea is like as in some game -"if you was "founded out", you are "burned" –  Пилум Jan 18 '22 at 14:32

1 Answers1

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Yes. Since the song is a rap about a guy approaching a girl, the slang meaning fits in nicely:

  • You surely saw him checking you out from a distance

Here is the context:

Эй
На тебе бандана — ты будто дочь Тупака
На типе панама — он будто сын рыбака
Ты спалила наверняка, как он смотрит издалека
У типа для тебя бокал, у тебя для типа "пока"
А я подойду, скажу, что не знаю с чего начать
Вроде нужно говорить, но можем и помолчать
Не дам тебе заскучать, возьму тебя рассмешу
Все вокруг будут нам мешать, все вокруг это просто шум

There is also the reflexive спалиться 'to get busted'.

Sergey Slepov
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  • Yeah that was the song I was looking at. The translation "You surely saw him checking you out from a distance" makes so much more sense now that you also mention "to get busted". the other thing I missed is "он смотрит" actually has has a receipt of the "look" action. very helpful, thanks! – curiousmind Jan 17 '22 at 20:19