Skuka stoit v serdtse - Andrey Platonov's HAPPY MOSCOW

[Penelope Burt]

How about: "I'm sick at the heart" (cf. the old English ballad Lord Randall)?
And "a child was/got heartsick and died all by himself ("all by himself" sounds like "alone" but the locution is also used when a child first learns to walk "all by himself," without support).

Penny Burt

On Dec 6, 2011, at 10:11 AM, John Dunn wrote:

> I suppose that in an ideal world you would want a single English root that would cover all the occurrences of 'skuka' etc.  The best I can up with is 'sad' (sadden, sadness etc.).  This seems to work for the first instance, where you could have something like 'The sadness has reached/pierced my heart' or 'sadness lies in my heart', but is harder for the second: A child fell sad/became sad/was saddened all sound a little strange, though you could argue that so does the original.  
> 
> I also have doubts about 'independently'; I assume that 'samostojatel'no' means that no-one else was involved in the death, and I am not sure that 'independently' quite conveys that.  Perhaps 'died by his own hand', which I offer less as a solution than as a step that might point you in the direction of something better.
> 
> John Dunn.
> ________________________________________
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Chandler [kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM]
> Sent: 05 December 2011 23:13
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Skuka stoit v serdtse - Andrey Platonov's HAPPY MOSCOW
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> Here are a few lines from chapter ten of the novel, including what will be printed as endnotes:
> “Never mind,” said Sartorius, remembering himself.  “Now we’re going to intervene in what lies inside a man, we’re going to find his poor, terrible soul.” (An allusion to Stalin’s call, in his February 1931 speech “On the Tasks of Managers,” for maximal intervention in economic production:  “It is time to finish with that rotten policy of nonintervention in production.  It is time to master a new policy that corresponds to the situation of today: Intervene in Everything.”  Stalin, Collected Works, vol 13, p. 410 http://www.hrono.ru/libris/stalin/13-18.php)
> 
> “It’s time we did, Semyon Alekseyevich,” said Bozhko.  “Somehow I’ve had enough of being the old kind of natural man.  My heart’s sick of it all. (!! Skuka stoit v serdtse.)  Mother History’s made monsters of the lot of us!”
> 
> Does anyone have any inspired suggestions for Skuka stoit v serdtse?  " My heart’s sick of it all." conveys the sense, but is sadly dull in comparison with the Russian
> 
>                                        *
> 
> Throughout this novel, Platonov uses 'skuka', 'skuchnyi' and 'skuchat'' a great deal, and often in unexpected ways.  Of a young boy who has committed suicide, for example, it is said что где-то в комнате заскучал и самостоятельно умер ребенок
> 
> At present we have this: Grieving and in tears, Katya told how somewhere in a room a child had felt dismal and had died independently – at a time when she was being intoxicated by happiness with his father.
> Can anyone suggest anything better than "felt dismal"?
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Robert
> 
> 
> 
> Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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