GR translation: sunfishing in the clouds

[jochen stremmel]

Sorry, Mike, for bringing that unqualified remark upon your head. The
motion of the "nervous balloons" is rough enough to strum cables.
Could one not call that violent?

And to please David, perhaps, I found the following quote by a horsewoman:

Sunfishing, otoh, is a full-blown buck where the horse swings its body
side to side while in the air - think of the way a fish on a line will
fling itself side-to-side.

Although I'm not sure that "sunfishing" horse means applying the
imagery of that fish to the horse. I'd rather think the man who
applied that image first to a horse (perhaps the brother of the one
who created the metaphor "firewater") never saw a sunfish in his life.

Jochen

2012/5/11 David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:
> "Sunfishing applied to horses" may be obscure, but your saying you
> lean toward that translation makes me think your GR translation is
> going to be a real stinker, for at least 2 or 3 reasons:
>
> 1. There is no "violent motion involved here." You have pulled that
> out of thin air.
>
> 2. A Sunfish and the balloon resemble each other, and a fish on a
> taught line is a common image.
>
> 3.  Sunfish exist.  A. "Sunfishing" horse is applying the imagery of
> that fish to a horse, much like Pynchon is applying that imagery of
> that fish to a balloon.
>
> If Chinese doesn't allow "verbing" of nouns, a hyphenated or compound
> word such as "sunfishlike-moving" would be the next obvious choice.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 11:20 PM, Mike Jing
> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sunfishing, as applied to horses, is indeed an obscure cowboy term.
>> In fact, I didn't even know it existed.  And the image of a fish IS
>> explicit.  But somehow I'm still leaning towards horses, probably
>> because it feels more like a proper verb.  Besides, the "verbed"
>> sunfish does not automatically imply the violent motion involved here,
>> although it could.  Decisions, decisions....
>>
>> On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 9:23 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> There is no hint of horses in the text.  The image of a fish is
>>> explicit, even one on a fishing line, maybe fighting to get loose.