Platonov and God

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

This line is from his play Sharmanka:

O, Gospodi, Gospodi, khot¹ by ty byl, chto li!

This is not easy to translate.  What I would particularly like help with is
the Œchto li¹.  The sentence could end with Œbyl!¹  What does the Œchto li¹
add to it?

Vsego dobrogo,

Robert

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