Reading GR in Brazilian Portugues
ish mailian
ishmailian at gmail.com
Thu Dec 3 17:14:59 CST 2015
I don't know if there is a translation from American English to Brazilian
Portuguese, but from what has been discussed so far, I'm assuming that
readers, in Brasil, want to read GR, and, if this is the case, I strongly
recommend, if possible, reading the book in American English and posting
questions to the P-List. I can help, as I am fluent in Brazilain
Portuguese, but so much is going to be next to impossible to translate.
Think about it this way, a common expression in Brazilian Portuguese, cala
a boca, or cala a boca Magda!, is quite difficult to translate, though a
simple translation might be, shut up! or shush up!, dropping Magda, a
television character, the origin, or etymology of the phrase, while not so
idiomatic as to render translation impossible, is still, important, and,
when we appraoch such phrases in Pynchon, say in VL, where television
phrases are uses frequently and with subtle complexities that are often
derived from the TV-etymology, say in how Homer Simpson says Doh!, or how
the Skipper says "Little Buddy" or how, in Brazil, "Jesus's blood has
power", a church phrase that made its way to television, in a famous soap
opera, and then became a common phrase in ordinary conversation, of the
spiritual and Christian masses, that Jesus will protect us, nothing bad
will come to us...etc...a phrase that, for poor people working people,
especially, in the neighborhood, where trafficking and police are a
constant threat, is like a spell, like the fuck you spell that Slothrop
uses in GR.
Anyway, I'm no translater, clearly, but I suggest reading it in American
English and going to school on the P-listers.
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