Re: GR translation: you whose interdiction from her mother’s water-white love is absolute

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Mike.

In the banana song, the published translation went with a sexual
interpretation. Is that appropriate?


On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 5:06 PM, Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> Hello Mabel are you able, to come out today
> <http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bonzo+dog+band/hello+mabel_21004874.html>
> I thought it was an oldie the Bonzos filched, but no, it's written by Neil
> Innes.
>
>
> On 07-Jul-17 4:08 PM, Mike Jing wrote:
>
> V8.33-9.11, V9.7-25   Osbie Feel stands in the minstrels’ gallery, holding
> one of the biggest of Pirate’s bananas so that it protrudes out the fly of
> his striped pajama bottoms—stroking with his other hand the great jaundiced
> curve in triplets against 4/4 toward the ceiling, he acknowledges dawn with
> the following:
>
> Time to gather your arse up off the floor,
>        (have a bana-na)
> Brush your teeth and go toddling off to war.
> Wave your hand to sleepy land,
> Kiss those dreams away,
> Tell Miss Grable you’re not able,
> Not till V-E Day, oh,
> Ev’rything’ll be grand in Civvie Street
>        (have a bana-na)
> Bubbly wine and girls wiv lips so sweet—
> But there’s still the German or two to fight
> So show us a smile that’s shiny bright
> And then, as we may have suggested once before—
> Gather yer blooming arse up off the floor!
>
> What does "you’re not able" mean here then?
>
> On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 10:50 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> agree.
>>
>> With "omitted" as a lack, so to speak, somehow echoed by "unable"
>> --seemingly also some kind of lack...
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 10:47 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, there's definitely a parallel structure here:
>>>
>>> you,
>>> alone, saying *sure I know them*,
>>> omitted, chuckling *count me in*,
>>> unable, thinking *probably some hooker *. . .
>>>
>>> It seems to me that "alone", "omitted", and "unable" all describe "you".
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 6:20 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Maybe this is the way we get somewhere re unable. I looked up
>>>> the whole section and many phrases are in *italics which *show us
>>>> something...
>>>> they are words being spoken, cued
>>>> by the word 'saying'....one of those sliding narrative voices as McHale
>>>> (and others)
>>>> wrote of.....Slothrop speaking or You (us) or both at once......
>>>> ....surrounded by other
>>>> narratorial words that are not spoken.
>>>>
>>>> "saying *sure I know them*, omitted, chuckling *count me in,*
>>>> unable, thinking *probably some hooker"*
>>>>
>>>> So, between the spoken words a narrator--the author-- sets up
>>>> paralleled connected observations.
>>>>  There must be a rhetorical term for that ---like parallelism? (just
>>>> trying here)
>>>>
>>>> 'omitted, chuckling'....refers to something spoken that was omitted and
>>>> laughed over, I ask???
>>>> then....'unable, thinking'....perfect balanced phrases......referring
>>>> to words unable to be heard or put down and
>>>> only leading to thought i.e. not spoken? ??
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:45 AM, Mike Jing <
>>>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> V472.30-39, P480.25-35   Of all her putative fathers—Max Schlepzig and
>>>>> masked extras on one side of the moving film, Franz Pökler and
>>>>> certainly other pairs of hands busy through trouser cloth, that
>>>>> Alpdrücken Night, on the other—Bianca is closest, this last possible
>>>>> moment below decks here behind the ravening jackal, closest to you who
>>>>> came in blinding color, slouched alone in your own seat, never
>>>>> threatened along any rookwise row or diagonal all night, you whose
>>>>> interdiction from her mother’s water-white love is absolute, you,
>>>>> alone, saying sure I know them, omitted, chuckling count me in,
>>>>> unable, thinking probably some hooker . . . She favors you, most of
>>>>> all. You’ll never get to see her. So somebody has to tell you.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is this interdiction between you and her mother's love, i.e. you are
>>>>> interdicted by something else from her mother's love, or is it that
>>>>> you are interdicted by her mother's love for her from doing something?
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, what does "water-white" imply? And what does "unable" mean here
>>>>> exactly?
>>>>> -
>>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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