Reading GR in Brazilian Portugues

[Grebmops]

There is a translation, made by Paulo Henriques Britto (who also did
Against the Day and Mason & Dixon), published by Cia. das Letras (now out
of print). It's not hard to find a used copy online, and a good library
will have it. The translation isn't bad, but I didn't read all of it.

On Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 9:14 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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