GR translation: even this far out of it

[jochen stremmel]

Another problem of this passage is the Rilke quotation because the original
has the preterite "Und wenn dich das Irdische vergaß". Pynchon does not use
an existing translation (And if the earthly has forgotten you) but takes
his own which is better in parts (the last line for example). The tense in
the first line – the 12th of the poem – seems strange and I'm nearly
inclined to think it's a typo for forgot because otherwise it should be:
forgets you. Don't you think so?

2015-08-27 14:59 GMT+02:00 Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com>:

> In the 1960s and 1970s "out of it" came to mean disconnected, unaware, not
> part of the scene -- the "it" being a generic, undefined referent for "the
> world shared by everyone else." Coupled with the Rilkean "though
> Earthliness forget you," it's another way of telling us about Slothrop's
> shrinking temporal bandwidth and increasing distance from -- or dissolution
> into -- the world of rocket plots, history, Firm and Counterforce.
>
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 3:15 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> V622.14-26   Through the flowing water, the holes of the old Hohner
>> Slothrop found are warped one by one, squares being bent like notes, a
>> visual blues being played by the clear stream. There are harpmen and
>> dulcimer players in all the rivers, wherever water moves. Like that Rilke
>> prophesied,
>>
>>               And though Earthliness forget you,
>>               To the stilled Earth say: I flow.
>>               To the rushing water speak: I am.
>>
>>        It is still possible, even this far out of it, to find and make
>> audible the spirits of lost harpmen. Whacking the water out of his
>> harmonica, reeds singing against his leg, picking up the single blues at
>> bar 1 of this morning’s segment, Slothrop, just suckin’ on his harp, is
>> closer to being a spiritual medium than he’s been yet, and he doesn’t even
>> know it.
>>
>> What exactly does "even this far out of it" mean here?
>>
>
>
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