Platonov 'Never to return'

[Lily Alexander]

Dear Robert,

I think you are absolutely right : there is a paradox with time, which 
implies that time in not linear in Platotov, and may go back and forth 
or be circular like in myth.

I think your second last choice is the closest to this obvious word/time 
game of Platonov in this sentence. But perhaps experimenting, you can 
get even a better solution.

‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, never again to have gone back to
 the foundation pit.’

(I like this one).

И Жачев уполз в город, более уже никогда не возвратившись на котлован.

Best,

Lily Alexander


 Robert Chandler wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Platonov does something odd with time in this passage from the very end of
> KOTLOVAN. Zhachev, the speaker, is in the barak, which is, I think, being
> treated as somewhere separate from the kotlovan itself.
>
> – Ты же видишь, что я урод империализма, а коммунизм –  это детское дело, за
> то я и Настю любил... Пойду сейчас на прощанье  товарища Пашкина убью.
>
> И Жачев уполз в город, более уже никогда не возвратившись на котлован.
> I Zhachev upolz v gorod, bolee uzhe nikogda ne vozvrativshis’ na kotlovan.
>
> There is clearly something paradoxical about this use of the past perfective
> gerund. 
>
> At present we have:
> ‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, never to return to the foundation
> pit.’
> But that is utterly normal, which the Russian clearly isn’t.
> Another possibility is ‘never having returned to the foundation pit’. But
> that too, I think, oversimplifies the meaning?
>
> The following versions are probably the closest, but they seem rather fussy.
> The original seems much cleaner!
> ‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, never again to have gone back to
>  the foundation pit.’
> ‘And Zhachev crawled away into the city, not once to have gone back to the
> foundation pit.’
>
> The last seems to me the least bad, but can anyone suggest anything better?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> R.
>
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