Platonov 'Never to return'

[Edward M Dumanis]

For the effect to be preserved, the translation must create time 
encapsulation which would distinguish "upolz" and "popolz."

Sincerely,

Edward Dumanis <dumanis at buffalo.edu>

On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Robert Chandler wrote:

.........../snip/...............
>
> È Æà÷åâ óïîëç â ãîðîä, áîëåå óæå íèêîãäà íå âîçâðàòèâøèñü íà êîòëîâàí.
> 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.’
......../snip/................

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