Fw: Pynchon in Poland

[Robert i Monika]

-----Original Message-----
From: glthompson <glthompson at home.com>
To: Robert i Monika <sudol at kki.net.pl>
Date: 3 czerwca 2000 01:10
Subject: Re: Pynchon in Poland

Hello, Gary,
Thanks for your clues. I'm also
Warsaw-based and know Tomasz Mirkowicz vaguely (met him once, at a
publisher's party in honour of Paul Auster and Mira Sorvino). Following your
advice, I phoned him. Turns out, you are wrong, he never did it. Maybe
that's a shame, as I think
he's one of the very best Polish literary translators. Recently
he's given up translating and focused on his own writings entirely. In the
eighties, short passages (about first 15 pages) of GR were translated by
yet another guy and published in a literary periodical. Yes, I have
Weisenburger's Companion, and it's very helpful, but unfortunately Fowler's
Guide is virtually unavailable, no way I could lay my hands on it. It's out
of stock, out of print, out of this world, it seems.

My God, Roget Moore the octopus story is really scary - or edifying -
depends how you look at it. Prophetic powers of Thomas Pynchon. Brrr.


Warm regards

Robert S.




>Hello, Robert--
>
>While in Poland in the 1980s I met Tomasz Mirkowicz in Warszawa--your
>message doesn't say where you are--and I thought he said he was working
>on a translation of _GR_. I never saw any indication that he'd finished
>it, however. If he didn't, he might be able to offer some suggestions
>about troublesome phrases. If you have access to Steven Weisenberger's
>_A GR Companion_, that may be of some help to you as well in some cases
>(not in these, unfortunately).
>
>Re lime-green--if you check the archives there was a discussion on this
>about 18 mos. ago--inconclusive I'm afraid, but I believe it had to do
>with color wheels, not with homilies. At any rate it is _not_ a familiar
>phrase for the population at large.
>
>Enjoy your work--keep the list posted
>
>Gary Thompson
>
>
>Robert i Monika wrote:
>
>>  Hello, it's Poland here. Translating GR and agonizing over it. Would
>> anyone enlighten me to the meaning of the following (I refer to the
>> 1995 Vintage paperback edition): page 12, lines 38-39: "... that
>> you're apt now and then to get a bit of lime-green in with your rose,
>> as they say". What is the meaning of "a bit of lime-green in with your
>> rose"?  I've never heard that phrase. In Polish, we have a saying:
>> "there's a drop of birch tar in this cask of mead", which means that
>> something seemingly sweet or enjoyable will be bitter or nasty.  page
>> 13, lines 35-36 - "not even an Arab With A Big Greasy Nose to perform
>> on, as in that wistful classic every tommy's heard" - is it just a
>> part of those old imperial stereotypes which made the British happy in
>> their colonies, like, let's say, the opium-smoking Chinaman or the
>> snake-charming Hindoo? Or is it something specific? Some hoax? page
>> 36, line 37: "I'm the Red Bitch of the High Seas" - Does Pynchon refer
>> to any folk tale? To Sindbad the Sailor maybe? Why "red"?  Any ideas
>> welcome, folks.  Robert S.
>
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