Gained in Translation?

This via LanguageHat, a blog I read with regularity and reverence.

Today's entry, KOTLOVAN, is a discussion of the writing style employed by Andrei Platonov in The Foundation Pit (NYRB Classics, 2009), and how it was beautifully translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler.   I was struck dumb by the unsentimental sentimentality of this passage:

A dead, fallen leaf lay beside Voshchev's head; the wind had brought it there from a distant tree, and now this leaf faced humility in the earth. Voshchev picked up the leaf that had withered and hid it away in a secret compartment of his bag, where he took care of all kinds of objects of unhappiness and obscurity. "You did not possess the meaning of life," supposed Voshchev with the miserliness of compassion. "Stay here—and I'll find out what you lived and perished for. Since no one needs you and you lie about amidst the whole world, then I shall store and remember you."

I'm always a little surprised when something translated succeeds in grabbing my gut.