GR translation: booming over air-shafts

[David Morris]

I agree w/ Paul about "chase."  "whipped in glassy French-curved chase
across the rooftops" brings up an image of wind-blown snow eddies.

"Booming" would normally mean a loud deep sound like a drum or
explosion (especially in relation to air shafts that commonly carry
sound like an amplifier), but just following it says "too tenuous
themselves for sound," which negates their being able to boom (make a
loud sound).  So it seems Pynchon is deliberately playing against the
obvious meaning, probably with the alternative meaning: "producing in
great numbers," as in a population boom of ghosts.

boom·ing/ˈbo͞omiNG/
Adjective:
1.Having a period of great prosperity or rapid economic growth.
2.(of a sound or voice) Loud, deep, and resonant.

David Morris


On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 8:44 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> On 5/12/2012 7:02 AM, jochen stremmel wrote:
>>
>> By the way, Mike, I looked up this passage as well, and the
>> translators of the German edition, Austrian Nobel Prize winner
>> Elfriede Jelinek and/or Thomas Piltz (one of the best), choose for
>> "booming": »bebend über den Klangsäulen der Lüftungsschächte«,
>> slightly dodging the problem, and for "chase" the other word, like I
>> would have done, too: »in gläsern kurvenangepaßter Jagd über Dachfirst
>> und silberne Hügel gepeitscht«
>
>
> I think I hear chase more in the sense of a random scampering or darting, or
> maybe racing.
>
> Like, say, the children were seen in a helter-skelter haphazard chase across
> the lawn.
>
> assuming spirits move in an unrestrained almost random manner
>
> They could of course be hunting for something, but that wouldn't be my first
> reaction.
>
>
> P
>
>>
>> J
>>
>> 2012/5/12 Mike Jing<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>> P140.32-35  Now ghosts crowd beneath the eaves. Stretched among snowy
>>> soot chimneys, booming over air-shafts, too tenuous themselves for
>>> sound, dry now forever in this wet gusting, stretched and never
>>> breaking, whipped in glassy French-curved chase across the rooftops,
>>> along the silver downs, skimming where the sea combs freezing in to
>>> shore.
>>>
>>> Does "booming" mean "making a deep, prolonged, resonant sound" here?
>>> The published translation went with the other meaning, which doesn't
>>> feel quite right to me.  I could be very wrong, of course.
>>>
>>> Also, what exactly is "chase" here?  I have found:
>>>
>>> 1. a rectangular iron frame in which composed type is secured or
>>> locked for printing or platemaking.
>>> 2. Building Trades . a space or groove in a masonry wall or through a
>>> floor for pipes or ducts.
>>> 3. a groove, furrow, or trench; a lengthened hollow.
>>>
>>> and I am leaning towards #3.
>>
>>
>