GR translation: hep to the jive

[David Morris]

Are You Hep to the Jive? is one of Cab Calloway’s best known songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgW3RxKdN0Q

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hep (n.) — aware, up-to-date, in-the-know
 jive (n.) — jargon of speech to mislead unwanted attention
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Literally "hep to the jive" would mean "able to see through the
bullshit."  Less literally it would mean "cool," as in just "hep,"
aware.  So in this context it would mean seeing through the romantic
bullshit of death.

David Morris

On Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 12:36 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> On 12/2/2011 12:12 PM, Mike Jing wrote:
>>
>> P179.29-39  It has begun to reveal itself: how easily she might go. For the first time he understands why this is the same as mortality, and why he will cry when she leaves. He is learning to recognize the times when nothing really holds her but his skinny, 20-pushup arms. .
>> . . If she leaves, then it ceases to matter how the rockets fall. But the coincidence of maps, girls, and rocketfalls has entered him silently, silent as ice, and Quisling molecules have shifted in latticelike ways to freeze him. If he could be with her more . . . if it happened when they were together— in another time that might have sounded romantic, but in a culture of death, certain situations are just more hep to the jive than others—but they’re apart so much. . . .
>>
>>
>> "if it happened when they were together—"  If what happened?
>>
>> And what exactly is the meaning of "hep to the jive" here?
>>
> sounds like "it" might be death
>
> even in peace time dying together sounds romantic
>
> but in wartime it's even more hep to the jive, more appropriate,  easier to dig