Vasily Grossman - soedinennyi skrezhet

[Edward M Dumanis]

It is just a wonderful metaphor of the grinding noise from a Soviet power 
machine where the barb wire is the principal element involved in grinding 
human souls.

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008, Robert Chandler wrote:

> 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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