GR translation: dodderer and ass

[Mike Jing]

P35.39-P36.6   There’s Mexico’s girl, just entering the room. He spots
her immediately, the clarity around her, the absence of smoke and
noise . . . is he seeing auras now? She catches sight of Roger and
smiles, her eyes enormous . . . dark-lashed, no make-up or none Pirate
can see, her hair worn in a roll down to the shoulders— what the
hell’s she doing in a mixed AA battery? She ought to be in a NAAFI
canteen, filling coffee cups. He is suddenly, dodderer and ass, taken
by an ache in his skin, a simple love for them both that asks nothing
but their safety, and that he’ll always manage to describe as
something else—”concern,” you know, “fondness. . . .”

What is "dodderer and ass"?