Bleeding rail ties and 'Ya chuvstvuyu"

[Timothy D. Sergay]

Josh's "I bleed rail ties" I thought was very inventive, and accurate;
>> and I think it also raised his place on the list by more than 20 points.
>>

Dear Seelangers,

To venture that Platonov's character Fyodorov "bleeds rail ties" may well be 
an inventive, accurate and idiomatic way of describing his intuitive passion 
for his profession, but I can't agree that "I bleed rail ties" is a valid 
translation of what Fyodorov actually says of himself in his dialogue: "no 
ia chuvstvuiu..." And that's not because I'm a literalist ninny, although 
sometimes I suppose I am. That's because Fyodorov is not uttering an utterly 
idiomatic, slogan-like, quite finished and readily comprehensible thought 
about himself. If you google for "I bleed" you find Cardinals baseball fans 
cheerfully confessing "I bleed Cardinals red" and so on. Fyodorov shouldn't 
say "I eat this railroads stuff for breakfast," or "My middle name is 
rolling stock," either. He is not pronouncing a well-formulated slogan about 
himself. He is groping toward an articulation. As mentioned many times, what 
he says is significantly incomplete. I think the translations proposed here 
that come closest to that quality are Robert's "I work by feeling" (which 
might be even better, less finished, less determinate, as "I go by feeling), 
and someone else's very fine suggestion "I feel things" ("WHAT things?").

Best to all,

Tim Sergay 

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