GR translation: the plaid, hunched-up leaky handful inside

Mike Weaver mike.weaver at zen.co.uk
Thu Oct 31 12:18:04 CDT 2013


Leaky as in tearful - not literally crying but depressed and miserable 
maybe?
Or is it a reference to the shoe grease keeping the wet out of their 
busted and leaky footwear?
Or both and more...


On 31/10/2013 04:19, Mike Jing wrote:
> Thanks, Jochen.  The use of the word "leaky" is interesting.  Anyone 
> else has something to add?
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 4:27 AM, jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com 
> <mailto:jstremmel at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     A great passage again, a great paragraph. The "plaid, hunched-up leaky
>     handful inside" might be plaid-clad bowed customers at the lunchwagon
>     counter between them, and the pit, could it be something else than the
>     great pit with the holding capacity for all the lindy-hopping millions
>     of WWII?
>
>     2013/10/23 Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
>     <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>>:
>     > Also, what is "the pit" in "watched you lindy-hop into the pit
>     by millions"?
>     >
>     >
>     > On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 12:10 AM, Mike Jing
>     <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>>
>     > wrote:
>     >>
>     >> V471.29-472.3     Lost, again and again, past poor dambusted
>     and drowned
>     >> Becket, up and down the rut-brown slopes, the hayrakes rusting
>     in the
>     >> afternoon, the sky purple-gray, dark as chewed gum, the mist
>     starting to
>     >> make white dashes in the air, aimed earthward a quarter, a half
>     inch . . .
>     >> she looked at him once, of course he still remembers, from down
>     at the end
>     >> of a lunchwagon counter, grill smoke working onto the windows
>     patient as
>     >> shoe grease against the rain for the plaid, hunched-up leaky
>     handful inside,
>     >> off the jukebox a quick twinkle in the bleat of a trombone, a
>     reed section,
>     >> planting swing notes precisely into the groove between silent
>     midpoint and
>     >> next beat, jumping it pah (hm) pah (hm) pah so exactly in the
>     groove that
>     >> you knew it was ahead but felt it was behind, both of you, at
>     both ends of
>     >> the counter, could feel it, feel your age delivered into a new
>     kind of time
>     >> that may have allowed you to miss the rest, the graceless
>     expectations of
>     >> old men who watched, in bifocal and mucus indifference, watched you
>     >> lindy-hop into the pit by millions, as many millions as
>     necessary. . . .
>     >>
>     >> What are "the plaid, hunched-up leaky handful inside" exactly?
>     >
>     >
>
>

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