Tolstoy question 5

[Judson Rosengrant]

Dear Will,

It's always a good idea to consider these things in context.  Tolstoy uses
линейка several times in Детство to mean a wheeled conveyance of the summer
variety (the chapters surrounding the hunt), and the activity in question
involves a picnic on the family estate.  In any case, when Tolstoy does mean
a cover, he uses the word фартук (Отрочество), which, to me at least, tends
to preclude the use of простыня in that particular sense, even leaving aside
the question of the nature and purpose of the vehicle itself.

It's also important, I think, to realize that we're considering a work of
fiction and not an autobiography, so that it doesn't actually matter what
was possible or not possible for Tolstoy himself in Moscow within his own
biographical frame, even if the Moscow conveyance were the issue, which it
isn't.  But, as I say, Tolstoy does mean the summer variety of vehicle, and
that could in fact have been within his own experience, since there's no
reason to suppose that the urban meaning has priority, and since he was not
only born at Yasnaya Polyana but, as you point out, spent his summers there
and not in Moscow, with Yasnaya Polyana, in some respects, standing as the
model (but merely the model!) for Petrovskoye, the Irtenev family estate.
The fact that линейка later came to mean something like маршрутка is very
interesting but, again, not necessarily germane.  Although your point about
historical frame is, in regard to my own way of regarding these issues at
least, absolutely correct and must govern the usages employed in the
translation, just as it does (with the above caveat) govern them in the
original.  

Given the apparent etymological structure of линейка in the sense of
conveyance, it seems likely that what is meant is what I am calling a
'wagonette', that is, a large, probably unsprung vehicle with open seats
arranged in rows like a charabanc and very suitable for young children
taking short excursions in their immediate neighborhood.  Which fact of
course would be the basis for selecting 'wagonette' as opposed to 'ruler:
there could indeed be a possible 'childhood' association. . .

But I'm still undecided on that issue and will delay making a final decision
as long as I can, although I am tending to like 'ruler' for its more complex
resonance and for the greater immediacy of the association.

Regards.

Jud       


Judson Rosengrant, PhD
PO Box 551 
Portland, OR 97207

503.880.9521 mobile
jrosengrant at earthlink.net

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------