The plane tree and the stones
Translating Platonov
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Platonov’s translators are confronted with an enormous challenge: they must transport the brute otherness of the language, the inhuman Sovietspeak and bureaucratese, the euphemisms and the casual manner in which Platonov’s protagonists talk about violence. At the same time, they must maintain the lightness with which Platonov incorporates these elements into his work. New dimensions of the work can be revealed through the translation of passages which at first sight appear incomprehensible. The discovery of Christian motifs in Platonov’s The Foundation Pit has its origins in a debate on the correct equivalent of an expression for a tree.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2016, pp. 455–464)