GR translation: with edges fine and combed as rain

[Mike Jing]

It looks like I spoke too soon.  Again.  Looking at actual pictures, it
seems the edges of the reflection do look like little teeth of a comb
because of the ripples.


On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 6:22 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>wrote:

> No problem.  I was just confused and thought "combed" might mean something
> completely different that I didn't know about. But it clearly does not mean
> "comb-shaped" here,
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 2:00 PM, Ruth Flatscher <ruflatsch at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> hm, I'd definitely go for Bekah's mental images. Just I think the main
>> aspect is not so much on the "straightening", but the resulting pattern of
>> fine, more or less densely arranged parallel lines, like a comb's teeth...
>> which kind of blurs or dissolves otherwise solid outlines.
>> I also have to think of the old techniques for making those marbled book
>> covers, which often involve the use of a comb... (like this:
>> http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n0IU2yu_Tys/Te9VNLGPwxI/AAAAAAAAAGw/yVNaJSrIRls/s1600/Marmorieren+054+b.JPG).
>> Not so unlike the effect of a rippling water surface on the shapes of a
>> reflected landscape....
>>
>> (sorry for nit-picking, Mike. Maybe it's also just kind of strange for me
>> because in German we have related but different words for "straightened
>> with a comb" and "comb-shaped", while both meanings could apply in this
>> context).
>>
>> best regards,
>> Ruth
>>
>>
>>
>> On 13 March 2013 18:34, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, a most beautifully visual passage indeed.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 1:24 PM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> That passage is very visual to me.    A very fine rain - really a rain,
>>>>  not a drizzle -  will look like tiny little lines coming down. Reflections
>>>> in a lake,  even a very, very smooth lake,  will have really tiny lines at
>>>> the edges -   I can see it in my mind.  Minnesota lake with little cottages
>>>> around - reflections in the totally "mirror smooth" lake except there are
>>>> tiny,  tiny lines at the edges of the reflections.   Think of seeing your
>>>> own reflection in the mirror-smooth lake.  The edges are just a bit off.
>>>>
>>>> Bekah
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mar 13, 2013, at 6:58 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > P272.29-36   The city below him, bathed now in a partial light, is a
>>>> necropolis of church spires and weathercocks, white castle-keep towers,
>>>> broad buildings with mansard roofs and windows glimmering by thousands.
>>>> This forenoon the mountains are as translucent as ice. Later in the day
>>>> they will be blue heaps of wrinkled satin. The lake is mirror-smooth but
>>>> mountains and houses reflected down there remain strangely blurred, with
>>>> edges fine and combed as rain: a dream of Atlantis, of the Suggenthal. Toy
>>>> villages, desolate city of painted alabaster. . . .
>>>> >
>>>> > What does "combed" mean here?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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