GR translation: booming over air-shafts

[Mark Kohut]

Like.


From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: GR translation: booming over air-shafts

On 5/12/2012 10:52 AM, David Morris wrote:
> 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.

Another sense contrasting with sound might be swinging--like the boom on 
a crane or sailboat does.  If the air shafts or air wells needed to be 
traversed. Or could booming be leaping over the air shafts.

P


>
> 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.
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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