Grossman - translation question now answered: obrashchennuyu

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

For those of you who have not lost patience with this, here is what I hope may be a last word on the subject:
This soul, this faith was alive in a illiterate old man, and it was as simple as his life and his daily bread, without a single high-flown word or moment of grandiose preaching.  Sensing his faith, reaching out and touching his faith, was enough to bring tears to my eyes, because I suddenly understood that it was less about God than it was about people.  I understood that Aleksey could not live without this faith, just as he could not live without bread and water and that, for the sake of his faith, he would not hesitate to subject himself to the torment of the Cross, or to the most terrible and unending penal servitude.

I owe the idea of using "about" to Stephen Pearls, who wrote, 'This use of "about" as a kind of comprehensive connective tissue is being widely used in contemporary English. e.g. "life is about helping people", "politics is increasingly about money", "successful marriage is really about tolerance". A difficult idiom to convey successfully into other languages.'

All the best, and thanks!  Robert
> 
> Grossman is writing here about an old Molokan villager he met in Armenia.  What does обращенную mean here?
> 
> Эта душа, эта вера жила в неграмотном старике и она была проста, как его жизнь, его хлеб, без единого пышного слова, без высокой проповеди, и глаза мои наполнялись слезами оттого, что я прикоснулся к этой вере, оттого, что я вдруг понял ее силу, обращенную не к богу, а к людям, понял, что Алексей Михайлович не может жить без нее, как не может жить без хлеба и воды, и что он, не колеблясь, пойдет на крестную смертную муку, на самую страшную бессрочную каторгу ради нее.




Robert Chandler, 42 Milson Road, London, W14 OLD





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