Tolstoy KS translation

[O'Brien, Kevin]

I believe that in Russian, as in English, the original context for the phrase was its usage in the grading of diamonds--of the purest water. Kevin O'Brien, Chapman University
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From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Katz, Michael R. [mkatz at MIDDLEBURY.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 5:26 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Tolstoy KS translation

Dea Colleagues:

I am currently retranslating Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata" and I came across a curious phrase in the second paragraph of Chapter 7.  Pozdnyshev is talking about how he fell in love and he says:

И если идет туда, спасательный клапан открыт, все благополучно; но прикройте клапан, как я прикрывал его временно, и тотчас же получается возбуждение, которое, проходя через призму нашей искусственной жнзни, выразится влюбленьем самой чистой воды, иногда даже платоническим.

The phrase that puzzles me is: "влюбленьем самой чистой воды."
The Maudes and David McDuff (Penguin) omit it entirely.
Pevear & Volokhonsky translate it literally: "will express itself in a love of the purest water, sometimes even platonic."

That doesn't make much sense to me.

Any thoughts?

With many thanks for your suggestions,

Michael Katz
Middlebury College

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