Tolstoy KS translation

[Alexandra Smith]

Dear Michael,

I totally agree with Valentina Apresian's comment. The origin of the  
idiomatic expression has been already discussed but one needs to  
remember that Tolstoy uses an idiomatic expression. As Valentina  
Apresian points out, it means something real, true, in its most  
typical form (the expression "eto chistoj vody pravda, for example, is  
very common). It does not make any sense to translate Tolstoy's  
sentence the way Pevear and Volokhonsky did.
The word "vliublen'e" is related to vliublennost' which is not the  
same as "liubov'. It refers to infatuation, obsessive  emotional  
affection, crush. Vliublen'e signifies the process of falling in love.  
It's difficult to translate the whole sentence in an elegant way but  
the meaning of Tolstoy's sentence suggests that the excitement [...]  
manifests itself in an obsessive infatuation/crush which  stays  
sometimes Platonic. There is nothing "pure" in Pozdnyshev's image of  
love. We shouldn't forget that it's his confessional talk (he is a  
criminal who killed his wife in a brutal way) and his description of  
his past (especially his youth) is rather naturalistic. He simply  
admits that sometimes he managed to constrain his desire/instincts and  
as a result of his effort to be civilised he experienced crushes on  
women but they were sometimes Platonic: i.e. he felt infatuated about  
some women/had a strong affection for some women but his affection  
didn't result sometimes in sexual satisfaction.
It seems that the word "pure" in this context sounds ironic  
(intentionally, I think, since Tolstoy distances himself rom his  
character) but it fits well with the notion of stereotypes and  
hypocritical behaviour (one can easily imagine a liar saying that  
everything he says  is absolutely true: pravda chistoi vody).

With best wishes,
Alexandra











--------------------------------
Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
Reader in Russian Studies
Department of European Languages and Cultures
School of  Languages, Literatures and Cultures
The University of Edinburgh
David Hume Tower
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9JX
UK

tel. +44-(0)131-6511381
fax: +44- (0)0131 651 1311
e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk








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