Andrei Platonov > Quotes

“Busy remaking the world, man forgot to remake himself.”
― Andrei Platonov

“Everything in the existing world seemed strange to him; it was as if the world had been created for some brief, mocking game. But this game of make-believe had dragged on for a long time,for eternity, and nobody felt like laughing anymore.”
― Andrei Platonov, Soul

“He walked around all the useless things in the courtyard and touched them with his hands; for some reason, he wished that these would remember him, and love him. But he didn't believe they would. From childhood memories he knew how strange and sad it is after a long absence to see a familiar place again, for these unmoving objects have no memory and do not recognize the stirrings of a stranger's heart.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Fierce and Beautiful World

“Do you know how much thinking and feeling I’ve done? It’s terrible. And nothing’s come of it.”
― Andrei Platonov

“Everything comes to an end, only objects are left to pine in the dark.”
― Andrei Platonov, Happy Moscow

“Inside every poor creature was a sense of some other happy destiny, a destiny that was necessary and inevitable -why, then, did they find their lives such a burden and why were they always waiting for something?”
― Andrei Platonov, Soul

“From our ugliness will grow the soul of the world.”
― Andrei Platonov

“People themselves would grind one another down and tear one another to pieces, and the best would fall dead in the struggle while the worst would turn into animals.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Return and Other Stories

“In place of hope all that remained to him was endurance, and somewhere beyond the long sequence of nights, beyond the orchards that faded, blossomed, and perished once more, beyond all the people he had encountered and who had then passed on into the past, there existed his fated day-when he would have to take to his bed, turn his face to the wall, and pass away without being able to cry.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit

“Then she would wander through fields, over simple, poor land, looking carefully and keenly all round her, still getting used to being alive in the world, and feeling glad that everything in it was right for her — for her body, her heart, and her freedom.”
― Andrei Platonov, Happy Moscow

“What he would have liked, without admitting it, was for the whole world, forever under construction yet never constructed, to be like his own destroyed life.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit

“Marxism will be able to do anything. Or why is Lenin lying whole in Moscow? He's waiting for science—he wants to be revived.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit

“Ve işte bazen, hastayken, mutsuzken, aşıkken, fecibir kabus gördüğümüzde, genel olarak normdan uzaklaştığımız durumlarda iki kişi olduğumuzu açık seçik duyarız: Yani ben tek kişiyimdir ama içimde biri daha vardır. Bu gizemli "o" sık sık mırıldanır, bazen ağlar, içinden çıkıp uzak bir yere gitmek ister, canı sıkılır, korkar. Görürüz ki iki kişiyiz ve birbirimizden bıkmışız. Bilincimiz çift değil tek olduğunda bir hafiflik, özgürlük duyarız, manasız bir hayvan cennetine düşmüşüz gibi.”
― Andrey Platonov, Mutlu Moskova

“Само думите превръщат течащото чувство в мисъл, защото размишляващият човек разговаря. Но разговорът със себе си е изкуство, разговорът с другите – забава.”
― Andrei Platonov, Chevengur

“But men live because they’re born, not by truth or by intelligence, and while the heart goes on beating it scatters and spreads their despair and finally destroys itself, losing its substance in patience and in work.”
― Andrei Platonov, Soul

“As before, he did not know whether there really was anything special about existence in general; no one could recite to him from memory a codex of universal laws, and events on the earth's surface were not charming him.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit

“O masses, o masses! When will you assume the image and likeness of your avant-garde?”
― Andrei Platonov

“Bazen Komyagin içinden şöyle düşünüyordu: Bir ya da iki ay sonra yeni bir hayata başlarım, resimleri bitiririm, şiirleri tamamlarım, dünya görüşümü baştan sona gözden geçiririm, dokümanları hale yola koyarım, düzgün bir işe girerim, örnek işçi olurum, bir kadın-arkadaş sever ve evlenirim... Bir-iki ay kadar sonra zamanın kendisinde de özel bir şey gerçekleşeceğini ve duraklayıp kendisini hareketinin içine alacağını umuyordu, oysa yıllar penceresinin önünden dur durak bilmeden, mutlu bir tesadüf denk gelmeksizin geçip gidiyordu. O zaman Komyagin yatağından kalkıyor ve polis dayanışma görevlisi sıfatıyla millete kalabalık mahallerde ceza kesmeye gidiyordu.”
― Andrey Platonov, Happy Moscow

“The soul doesn’t die,” he said. “She becomes a stranger. She thinks bad is good. She gets bored inside us. She imagines what doesn’t exist and promises what never will exist.”
― Andrei Platonov, Soul

“Let the future be alien and empty, and let the past find peace in graves, in the cramped closeness of bones that had once embraced, in the dust of loved and forgotten bodies that had rotted together.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit

“ჩვენს ქვეყანაში ყველაფერი ხმათა უმრავლესობით წყდება, და მერე რა მოხდა, რომ უმრავლესობა თითქმის ყველა გაუნათლებელია. და ოდესმე ისეც მოხდება, რომ საყოველთაო თანასწორობისათვის, გაუნათლებლები გადაწყვეტენ განათლებულები მოარიდონ წიგნებს... მით უფრო, რომ ადამიანთა მცირე რაოდენობის მოშორება ცოდნისგან უფრო მოსახერხებელია, ვიდრე ყველას ერთად სწავლა”
― ანდრეი პლატონოვი

“Болтовете, крановете и старите манометри, които стояха винаги на масата му, не можеха да разсеят тъгата му – той ги гледаше и не се чувстваше в тяхната компания. Нещо го въртеше като свредел отвътре, сякаш сърцето му скърцаше на някакъв обратен, необичаен ход. Захар Павлович все не можеше да забрави малкото мършаво тяло на Прошка, който се влечеше по линията към далечината, затрупана от грамадната, сякаш рухнала природа. Захар Павлович мислеше без ясни представи и сложни думи, само с топлината на впечатлителните си сетива и това му стигаше, за да страда. Той виждаше мъката на Прошка, който сам не знаеше, че страда, виждаше железопътната линия, която работеше отделно от Прошка и от неговия объркан живот, и никак не можеше да разбере какво става, само скърбеше и скръбта му беше без име.”
― Andrei Platonov, Chevengur

“İnek, bir mutluluğu unutup bir başkasını bulabileceğini ve eziyet çekmeyi bırakıp yeniden yaşayabileceğini anlamıyordu. Bulanık aklı kendisini kandırmasına yardımcı olacak güce sahip değildi: Yüreğine ya da duygularına bir kez sızan şey ne bastırılır, ne de unutulurdu.”
― Andrei Platonov, Dönüş

“Колкото повече живееше, Захар Павлович с учудване виждаше, че не се променя и не поумнява, остава си все същият, какъвто си беше на десет или петнайсет години. Само някои негови по-раншни предчувствия сега бяха станали обикновени мисли, но от това нищо не се беше променило, не бе станало по-хубаво. Преди той си представяше своя бъдещ живот като дълбоко синьо пространство, такова едно далечно, почти несъществуващо, И Захар Павлович отнапред знаеше, че колкото повече живее, толкова това пространство на неизживения живот ще се смалява, а мъртвият отъпкан път зад него ще де удължава. Но се беше излъгал – животът растеше и се натрупваше, а бъдещето пред него също растеше и се разпростираше – по-дълбоко и по-тайнствено, отколкото на младини, сякаш Загар Павлович отстъпваше назад от края на своя живот или пък увеличаваше надеждите си и вярата си в него.”
― Andrei Platonov, Chevengur

“Çok sevdiğim ve değer verdiğim her şey beni korkutuyor, çünkü tam da o sırada ölüm dehşet vermeye başlıyor.”
― Andrei Platonov, Я прожил жизнь. Письма. 1920-1950 гг.

“A dark man with a burning torch ran down the street on a dull night in late fall. The little girl saw him from the window of her house, having awoken from a dull dream. Then she heard a sharp rifle shot and a pitiful despondent scream — they must have killed the man running with the torch. Soon she was hearing other shots, many and distant, and the clamor of people in a nearby prison… The girl fell asleep and forgot everything that she would see later, on subsequent days: she was too young, and the memory and reason of early childhood were overgrown forever by her future life. But well into her old age the nameless man rose up sadly and unexpectedly and ran within her — in the dim light of her memory — and died once more in the darkness of the past, in the heart of the grown up child. Amidst hunger and sleep, in a moment of love or of some youthful joy — suddenly in the distance, in the depth of her body there rose again the despondent scream of the dead man, and the young woman instantly altered her life — stopped her dance, if she was dancing, grew more focused, more reliable in her work, if she was laboring, hid her face in her hands, if she was alone. That stormy night of late fall saw the start of the October revolution — in that town where Moskva Ivanovna Chestnova had lived at that time.”
― Andrei Platonov, Happy Moscow

“Kalbiniz sizden daha yaşlı, sesi çok uzaklardan geliyor.”
― Andrei Platonov, Я прожил жизнь. Письма. 1920-1950 гг.

“He walked then with the same heart as those peasants who walk to Kiev after their faith has run dry and their life has turned into simply living it out.”
― Andrei Platonov, Chevengur

“He alone knew the USSR was populated by many total enemies of socialism, egotists and vipers of the future world, and he secretly consoled himself by the thought that one day soon he would exterminate the whole mass of them, leaving alive only proletarian infants and pure orphans.”
― Andrei Platonov, The Foundation Pit

“Aslında insanlar akıldan ya da hakikatten değil, sırf doğdukları için yaşarlar ve kalpleri, çarptığı müddetçe, çaresizliklerini işleyip parçalara böler, kendi de sabırla çalışmaktan cevherini yitirip viran olur.”
― Andrei Platonov, Soul