When this first appeared, I posted another translation of the same passage. While hardly of world-shaking importance, I would be interested to know which is closer to the Russian original. In the extract from Trilling, Gorky's interpolations have been removed, and the whole thing run together. Not to mention the harsher tone of "split skulls open" -- one might compare with "banging heads" and "bashing heads" (or have I got that wrong?)
kj khoo
At 7:01 PM -0500 5/1/04, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Hari Kumar wrote:
>
>>5 Jan 2004 15:37:03 -0500 To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>>Dwayne Monroe wrote:
>>>>Is it nice Alex to slap down the mouth(s) that >compliments you
>>>>with the word *crazies*? No. That's just bad manners that is.
>>>
>>>Real revolutionaries don't care about manners! You must be hard and cold.
>>>Doug
>>
>>Which manual did that come from? Hari
>
>One instance, from V.I.:
>
>At 10:38 AM -0800 12/23/03, Michael Pugliese wrote:
>> Lionel Trilling in, "The Liberal Imaginstion, " quotes this from
>>Comrade Lenin.
>>
>> "I know of nothing more beautiful than the Appassionata, I could
>>hear it every day. It is marvellous, unearthly music. Every time I
>>hear these notes, I think with pride and perhaps childlike naivete,
>>that it is wonderful what man can accomplish. But I cannot listen
>>to music often, it affects my nerves. I want to say amiable
>>stupidities and stroke the heads of the people who can create such
>>beauty in a filthy hell. But today is not the time to stroke
>>people's heads; today hands descend to split skulls open, split
>>them open ruthlessly, although opposition to all violence is our
>>ultimate ideal-it is a hellishly hard task."
>>
>>Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, quoted in Maxim Gorky, Days with Lenin
>>http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/archives20031214.shtml
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk