Rainbow & Parabola (was NP)

[Otto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: Rainbow & Parabola (was NP)


> >> ... or rather, the impressionistic rendering of the title
> >> into German from back in 1981 -- "Die Enden der Parabel",
> >> which translates into English as "the end of the
> >> rainbow/parable/parabola" -- that the theory derives from
> >> ...

As it seems the German title cannot be translated back into English directly
without some difficulty. Very well.

>
> on 28/7/04 7:00 PM, lorentzen-nicklaus at wrote:
>
> > ° In German the word "Parabel" does not really have the
> > meaning of "Regenbogen" -
>
> And nor is a rainbow a parabola, which is the NP observation that sent the
> p-list Hollander-infrastructure screaming into Homeland Security Alert
mode
> yet again.
>

And what do you make of that qote from p. 209 that Terrance just has posted?

> But I'm assuming that Chuck's contention, obviously working from the 1981
> German translation of the novel's title -- that, in German, "Parabel",
> meaning parabola, is an idiomatic synonym for rainbow -- is correct. He
> looked it up in Cassell's, after all. I think it's quite feasible that
there
> is an intentional play on the phrase "the end of the rainbow" (i.e. where,
> proverbially, the pot of gold is buried -- of course, one can never
actually
> locate the end of a rainbow because it's an observer-effect, so there is
the
> connotation of chasing after an impossible dream, which is apt).

"chasing after an impossible dream" -- that's good, that's what it says,
'cause there is not pot of gold at the end of the rainbow like in
mathematics there is no end of a parabola.

> It's
> interesting too that the German translators or publishers felt that they
> needed to advertise that their new title had been "authorised by the
> author";

There are so many bad translations of foreign booktitles in Germany that it
is indeed noteworthy that this title has been changed in accordance with the
author.

I disagree to Kai that "REGENBOGEN DER SCHWERKRAFT" would be as nice as "Die
Enden der Parabel," putting the emphasis on the indeterminacy of the word
"Parabel."

> obviously *they* were aware of the fact that it is a radical
> departure from the original phrase and not a "standard" translation at
all.
> I wonder what process they went through to get that authorisation.
>

The translator of "Mason & Dixon," Nikolaus Stingl, who also did Gaddis' "A
Frolic of his Own,"
http://www.williamgaddis.org/translating/stingl-frolic.shtml
did send a fax to Pynchon on several questions and received an "open and
immediate response."

Furthermore he tells that Pynchon has a clause in his contracts with foreign
publishers that the translations of his books have to be authorised by him.

DER STANDARD, 18. September 1999
http://www.brainstorm.at/artikel/standard180999.html
(Stingl interview)

Otto