Aunque escribiera un borrador en un mes

[Michael30000]

Hola a todos,

La frase en cuestión es del libro Tinta invisible de Javier Peña.

El 1 de octubre de 1866 un amigo encontró abatido a Dostoievski. Había firmado un acuerdo leonino con un editor y debía entregarle una novela el 1 de noviembre o era posible que acabase en la cárcel. ¿Qué podía hacer? Aunque escribiera un borrador en un mes, lo cual era casi una hazaña, no tendría tiempo para transcribirlo correctamente. El amigo le dijo que no se preocupase por eso, conocía al hombre que había puesto en marcha la primera escuela de estenografía de Rusia y le pediría ayuda. Tres días más tarde, la mejor alumna de esa escuela, Anna Grigorevna Snitkina, llamó a la puerta del apartamento de Dostoievski; llevaba una carpeta y lápices afilados que había comprado para la tarea.

......

Dostoievski dictó las primeras páginas de El jugador a Anna Snitkina y ella notó que la literatura lo revivía: ahora parecía más joven de lo que decía su edad. Establecieron una rutina, trabajarían todos los días de doce a cuatro; Dostoievski le dictaría en tres sesiones de algo más de media hora; el resto del tiempo tomarían té y hablarían. Se produjo un curioso paralelismo: mientras el escritor desarrollaba su obra, desarrollaba también el cortejo de Anna.

I must say that the use of subjuntivo (escribiera) looks very confusing to me.
At that exact moment when "El amigo le dijo que no se preocupase por eso" was the "borrador" already written or not? If it wasn't (and this is what the use of subjuntivo implies to me), why is it "lo cual era casi una hazaña", not "sería una hazaña"?

Thank you.

[wrholt]

I have a guess as to what the intended meaning might be, but a native speaker will have to confirm it for us.

The -ra form of the past subjunctive historically was not a subjunctive tense, it was the simple pluperfect indicative tense, corresponding in meaning to había X-do. In the present day using the -ra form as a pluperfect is mostly limited to newspaper writing and possibly to legal documents. Given the context of the phrase you're asking about, it seems most likely to me that the author's intended meaning of escribiera is había escrito = "had written". So, I think that a reasonable translation could be:

Although he had written a draft in one month, which was almost a feat, he wouldn't have time to transcribe it correctly.

Note that only the -ra form can be used in this way: the -se form *cannot* be used this way.

[Michael30000]

Thank you, wrholt.

[aleCcowaN]

Aunque escribiera un borrador en un mes, lo cual era casi una hazaña, no tendría tiempo para transcribirlo correctamente.

Even if he wrote a draft in just one month -quite the feat- he wouldn't have time to edit it the right way.

It's typical subjunctive used in a hypothetical situation, reinforced by the fact it is a no-action. The fact that his friend had a solution to meet the deadline doesn't change the previous impossible/hypothetical nature the action had in the mind of Dostoievski.

Imperfecto del subjuntivo has many indicative uses indeed, but not in this case.

I have certainly something to learn from this example, as it baffles me it wasn't perceived as pretty straighforward. I'm sure there are very good reasons for that and I would like to learn them

[Michael30000]

Thank you, aleCcowaN.

Well, the part that confused me is: lo cual era casi una hazaña. At that exact moment the draft wasn't written yet so why is "era casi una hazaña", not "sería una hazaña"?

"...era casi una hazaña" on the one hand and "no tendría tiempo" on the other hand... that's a bit confusing to me.

But now I understand that "es casi una hazaña" becomes "era casi una hazaña" because of the agreement of tenses.

By the way, since it's a general statement that is always true (like "the earth goes round the sun.") is it possible to break the agreement of tenses and use "es" in place of "era"?

[wrholt]

aleC, it seems that I am less familiar with other possible meanings of "aunque" in addition to "although". Reading "aunque" as "even if" in this context didn't occur to me. Thanks for showing the way to both Michael30000 and me!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree that there is something off with the conjugation agreement.
I might have said: "Aunque escribiera un borrador en un mes, lo cual habría sido casi una hazaña..."
"Escribiera", as Alec said, it's used because "aunque" already introduces an unlikely situation.
"Hubiera sido", sounds to me more appropriate, because this conjugation is used when an action in the past would have been accomplished if some condition had been met. In this case, the condition would have been getting the draft of a novel written, transcribed by a copyist, and revised in less than a month.
However, I think the author chose "era", because the general situation was that all this process had to be much slower than Dostoevsky needed, so the verb frames the (almost) impossible task inside the state of affairs at the time.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Michael30000

.

Well, the part that confused me is: lo cual era casi una hazaña. At that exact moment the draft wasn't written yet so why is "era casi una hazaña", not "sería una hazaña"?

The imperfect doesn't care about the beginning or end of an action, thus it's the right tense to show context: by the time of that consideration, Dostoievski thought it to be hard to do, yet still achievable. The conditional is reserved to the rest of the paragraph. Even with a draft he would have find himself out of time to transcribe and correct it.

Originally Posted by Michael30000

.

By the way, since it's a general statement that is always true (like "the earth goes round the sun.") is it possible to break the agreement of tenses and use "es" in place of "era"?

If the action occurs in the present, you can:

Si yo hiciera eso, lo que no está en mí, sería una canallada.

If I did that, something not in my nature, it would be a vile thing.

Originally Posted by wrholt

aleC, it seems that I am less familiar with other possible meanings of "aunque" in addition to "although". Reading "aunque" as "even if" in this context didn't occur to me. Thanks for showing the way to both Michael30000 and me!

You're welcome, Bill