Vasily Grossman - soedinennyi skrezhet

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

Grossman’s VSE TECHET contains a long discourse on Russian history – on
Lenin, Stalin, the myth of the Russian soul, etc.  Towards the end of this
discourse there is an eloquent sentence:
Да в  чем  же  она,  господи, эта всечеловеческая и всесоединяющая душа?
Думали  ли  пророки России  в  соединенном  скрежете колючей проволоки, что
натягивали  в сибирской  тайге  и вокруг Освенцима, увидеть свершение своих
пророчеств о будущем всесветном торжестве русской души?

Dumali li proroki Rossii v soedinennom skrezhete kolyuchei provoloki, chto
natyagivali v sibirskoi taige i vokrug Osventsima, uvidet’ svershenie svoikh
prorochestv o bududshchem vsevetnom torzhestve russkoi dushi?

“Where indeed, O Lord, is this all-human and all-uniting soul to be found?
Did the prophets of Russia ever imagine that their prophecies about the
coming universal triumph of the Russian soul would be fulfilled in the
united rasp (unified rattling??) of the barbed wire around Auschwitz and the
labour camps of Siberia?”

But does barbed wire rattle? Or rasp, for that matter?  Is this a noise it
makes in the wind? Or is it the noise made by the wire as they are unrolling
it and putting it in place?  In that case it might help to translate
‘natyagivali’, but I can’t think of the right word for that either.

This is an eloquent sentence, so it is a pity to let it sink into vague
confusion at the end.

Will be grateful, as always, for any thoughts!

Best Wishes,

Robert

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