Platonov 'Never to return'

[Margarita Orlova]

As a native speaker, i believe the phrase is normal, though within  
the borders of Platonov's chosen stylistic register.
>  The past perfective gerund is, in fact, not always past, though it is
> perfective.

Another Platonov's possibility to express the future would be "chtoby  
nikogda bolee uzhe ne vozvratiti'sa na kotlovan", but it switches the  
register too high - away from his style.

Margarita



On Apr 9, 2008, at 4:41 AM, 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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