Platonov - Happy Moscow question: теснящегося

[Sentinel76 Astrakhan]

I'd say "squeezed inside him" or "gripping him from inside."  With Platonov it's more about poetry than real meaning.

Vadim


> Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 22:20:02 +0100
> From: kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Platonov - Happy Moscow question: теснящегося
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> First: Many thanks to the many of you who answered my question about the exiled Ukrainian soldier!
> 
> Second: Does anyone have any thoughts about теснящегося in this sentence?
> 
> Если же Сарториус не посещал Лизу, он ходил много верст по
> городу,  подолгу  наблюдал,  как  вешают   хлеб   и   овощ   на
> электрических весах его конструкции, и вздыхал от теснящегося в
> нем,  заунывного  процесса  неизменного  существования.
> 
> If Sartorius did not visit Liza, he would walk for many miles around the city, spend a long time observing bread and vegetables being weighed in shops on electrical scales of his own design, and sigh because of the dreary process of unchanging existence that was cramping itself within him.
> 
> "there tight inside him"??
> "held tight inside him"??
> "cramped inside him"??
> "that was packed tight inside him"??
> "crowding within him"??
> 
> It is difficult to convey the presentness of the Russian participle.  And there is a deeper problem.  Most of the possible translations somehow give the impression of existence as something big and interesting that is being cramped inside this one particular person.  But Platonov says it is a "dreary process".
> 
> Help!!!
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Robert
> 
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
> 
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