GR translation: bearing his loneliness

[Albert Rolls]

Perhaps finding out how other translators have translated "bearing his soul" would help. I can't imagine that the phrase hasn't shown up in some translation, though my knowledge of what English texts get translated into Chinese is nonexistent.


-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
>Sent: Oct 28, 2011 12:15 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: GR translation: bearing his loneliness
>
>On 10/28/2011 11:37 AM, David Morris wrote:
>> The reason "tolerate" doesn't work well is that his loneliness is
>> described as a wounded and strange creature that he carries, almost
>> literally weighs on him, and really is a part of him.
>
>There needs to be the connotation of suffering and  unpleasantness.  A 
>psychological dimension.  Merely carrying something doesn't "weigh" on a 
>person.
>
>I wouldn't trust  "carry" here. But, not knowing Chinese, I'll leave it 
>to Mike to pick something appropriate.
>
>P
>
>
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 10:07 AM, Paul Mackin<mackin.paul at verizon.net>  wrote:
>>> On 10/28/2011 10:30 AM, David Morris wrote:
>>>> Actually "bearing" is very straightforward (not hard to translate at all):
>>> Unless of course "carry" and "tolerate" don't happen to be the same word in
>>> Chinese.
>>>
>>> My own choice would be to use the word for "tolerate"
>>>
>>> In Merriam-Webster International 3, "bear" has well over a column of usages,
>>> and these are long columns in very small print.
>>>
>>> I remember from high school Latin that "bear" was the funnist irregular
>>> verb.  Fero, ferre, tuli, latus.
>>>
>>> P
>>>
>>>> Irregular Verb - To Bear
>>>>
>>>> Meaning:
>>>>
>>>> To carry
>>>> To tolerate
>>>> To give birth to
>>>>
>>>> Conjugation of 'To Bear'
>>>>
>>>> Base Form:  Bear
>>>> Past Simple:  Bore
>>>> Past Participle:  Born/Borne
>>>> 3rd Person Singular:  Bears
>>>> Present Participle/Gerund:  Bearing
>>>>
>>>> So "bearing" would mean carrying, and would imply from the description
>>>> of that loneliness (brittle, easily crazed, oozing gum from the
>>>> cracks, a strange mac of most unstable plastic...) that his carrying
>>>> is visible to others.
>>>>
>>>> "Oozing gum" is what some tree do when "wounded."  Gum and sap are
>>>> synonymous.  Chewing gum was originally made from tree sap.
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 11:25 PM, Mike Jing
>>>> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>    wrote:
>>>>> P152.32-35  Among these nights' faint and lusting couples, Ronald
>>>>> Cherrycoke's laughing and bearing his loneliness, brittle, easily
>>>>> crazed, oozing gum from the cracks, a strange mac of most unstable
>>>>> plastic...
>>>>>
>>>>> Even I can see it now, here "bearing" is another one of those words
>>>>> that evokes so many different shades of meaning that it is almost
>>>>> impossible to translate properly.
>>>>>
>>>>> What about "gum"?  Does it have double meaning here as well?
>>>>>
>>>
>