Platonov's "The Behidden Man (Сокровенный человек)"

(An excerpt from an ongoing translation collaboration)

Не доезжая станции Колодезной, снегоочиститель стал: два могучих паровоза, которые волокли его, как плуг, влетели в сугроб и зарылись по трубу.

Before reaching Kolodeznaya Station,[1] the snowplow train came to a standstill: the two powerful locomotives, which dragged the car like a field plow, flew into a drift and buried themselves to their stacks.

Машинист-петроградец с поезда Троцкого, ведший головной паровоз, был выбит из сиденья и вышвырнут на тендер — от удара паровоза в снег и мгновенной остановки. А паровоз его, не сдаваясь, продолжал буксовать на месте, дрожа от свирепой безысходной силы, яростно прессуя грудью горы снега впереди.

The Petrograd driver on the locomotive from Trotsky’s train,[2] the lead engine, was knocked out of his seat and thrown onto the tender — from the impact with the snow and sudden stop. Yet his engine, not giving up, continued to run in place, trembling with a ferocious hopeless force, furiously pressing the mountains of snow ahead with its body.

Машинист прыгнул в снег, катаясь в нем окровавленной головой и бормоча неслыханные ругательства.

The driver jumped into the snow, rolling his bloody head in it and muttering unheard curses.[3]

К нему подошел Пухов с четырьмя собственными зубами в кулаке — он стукнулся челюстью о рычаг и вытащил изо рта ослабшие лишние зубы. В другой руке он нес мешочек со своими харчами — хлеб и пшено. 

Pukhov came up to him with four of his own teeth in his fist — he had banged his jaw on a lever and pulled the loosened teeth out of his mouth. In his other hand, he carried the sack with his grub — bread and millet.

Не  глядя на лежащего машиниста, он засмотрелся на его замечательный паровоз, все еще бившийся в снегу.

Without looking at the driver lying on the ground, he stared at his magnificent locomotive, still thrashing in the snow.

— Хороша машина, сволочь!

“Nice engine, jackass!”

Потом крикнул помощнику:

Then he hollered to his assistant:

— Закрой пар, стервец, кривошипы порвешь!

“Shut down the steam, you punk, or you’ll bust a crank!”[4]

С паровоза никто не ответил.

No reply came from the locomotive.

Положив харчи на снег и зашвырнув зубы, Пухов сам полез нa паровоз, чтобы закрыть регулятор и сифон.

Dropping his grub bag in the snow and tossing his teeth, Pukhov himself climbed on the locomotive to close the regulator and siphon.[5]

В будке лежал мертвый помощник. Его бросило головой на штырь и в расшившийся череп просунулась медь — так он повис и умер, поливая кровью мазут на полу.  Помощник стоял на коленях, разбросав синие беспомощные руки и с пришпиленной к штырю головой.

The assistant lay lifeless in the cab. He had been thrown headfirst against a rod and the copper had pierced his skull — so that he hung there dying, spilling blood on the Mazut fuel oil[6] on the floor. The assistant was on his knees, his blue, helpless hands spread and his head pinned to the rod.

«И как он, дурак, нарвался на штырь? И как раз ведь в темя, в самый материнский родничок хватило!» — обнаружил событие Пухов.

“And how, I wonder, did the fool run himself through with a rod? And through the crown, smack dab through where one lives!” — Pukhov had uncovered the event.[7]

Остановив бег на месте бесившегося паровоза, Пухов оглядел все его устройство и снова подумал о помощнике: «Жалко дурака: пар хорошо держал!»

Having stopped the mad locomotive running in place, Pukhov examined all of its mechanisms and again dwelt upon the assistant: “Miserable fool, the steam was holdin’ well!”

----------------------------------------------------

[1] “Kolodeznaya Station (станции Колодезной)” -- 53 km south of Voronezh, between Voronezh and Davydovka (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18399325) (Andrei Platonov. Essays. Volume 2. 1926-1927 // IWL RAS. 2016, p. 642)

[2] “Trotsky’s train (поезда Троцкого)” had been changed to “the Commissar’s train (поезда наркома)” (Andrei Platonov. Compositions. Volume 2. 1926-1927 // IWL RAS. 2016, p. 155).

[3] “unheard curses (неслыханные ругательства)” -- a wonderful turn of phrase in both English and Russian, with ”unheard” meaning both “not heard or listened to” and “not previously known of or done” (definition from Google Dictionary).

[4] “crank (кривошипы)” -- the locomotive mechanism that transmits the mechanical energy of the piston movement in the steam cylinders to the driving wheels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylinder_(locomotive)) (Andrei Platonov. Essays. Volume 2. 1926-1927 // IWL RAS. 2016, p. 642). 

[5] “siphon (сифон)” -- a steam device used to create a vacuum in the smokebox in order to increase the draught in the locomotive’s furnace (Andrei Platonov. Essays. Volume 2. 1926-1927 // IWL RAS. 2016, p. 639). This seems to be a sort of valve on the blastpipe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blastpipe).

[6] “Mazut fuel oil (мазут)” -- a heavy, low quality fuel oil (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazut).

[7] “uncovered the event (обнаружил событие)” -- Found only in Platonov, this phrase (similar to “обнаружить явление [to uncover a phenomenon]”; see the НКРЯ: https://bit.ly/3zEvLDz) is a concise, logically true and at the same time striking description of the peak of awareness, and we might speculate that it was derived from Platonov’s reading of philosophy. In addition, “обнаружил (uncovered/revealed/located/discovered/detected)” shares a root with “published (обнародовал)” and “exposed (обнажил)” and is a clerical term or a term that could have been used by Soviet speakers at some kind of gathering. In another interpretation, this paragraph is mentioned by Vladislav Otroshenko in an essay from the book The Secret History of Creations (Тайная история творений) (https://magazines.gorky.media/october/2001/12/esse-iz-knigi-tajnaya-istoriya-tvorenij.html). Otroshenko compares Platonov’s language with the holy scriptures of the West and East, in particular the Bhagavad Gita. The phrase “uncovered the event” can be broken down into 1) “event”, a thing that can be seen and understood, and 2) “uncover”, “to discover” and "to make manifest/visible” (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/descry). That is, Pukhov recognized this event (death) and made it visible to himself and others with his thoughts (words). In a sense, the real event is not what occurred but what Pukhov spoke/thought. Pukhov lives in a world of events that he either knows and understands or does not see and does not understand.

Location: Voronezh, Voronezh Oblast, Russia

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