GR translation: Far from rag, snow, lacerated streets

[David Morris]

Often, though we all love to interpret, I think in instances like this,
Mike should go more with literal translation, word for word as bast he
can.  Let others interpret.

This advice is 180 degrees opposite from my previous advice on poetry
translation.  There the text was layered, overlapping with rich close by
allusions.  Here any allusions are opaque.  Just go literal.

David Morris

On Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 11:09 AM Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> It may refer back to "The winds, the city snows and heat waves of Galina's
> childhood were never so pitiless" (341), but we don't get more of her back
> story than that, although the equestrian statue says it was in St.
> Petersburg. I can imagine metaphorically "lacerated" streets there during a
> 1914-1921 (WWI - Revolution - Civil War) childhood, but don't have anything
> for "rag" beyond a weak association with the little match girl or other
> waif in rags...
>
>
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/The_Little_Match_Girl_-_Bayes_1889.jpg
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 9:13 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> no, most definitely not.
>>
>> 2017-06-09 14:58 GMT+02:00 Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> V343.15-21, P348.17-23   . . . even now in her grownup dreams, to
>>> anxious Galina comes the winged rider, red Sagittarius off the
>>> childhood placards of the Revolution. Far from rag, snow, lacerated
>>> streets she huddles here in the Asian dust with her buttocks arched
>>> skyward, awaiting the first touch of him—of it. . . . Steel hooves,
>>> teeth, some whistling sweep of quills across her spine . . . the
>>> ringing bronze of an equestrian statue in a square, and her face,
>>> pressed into the seismic earth. . . .
>>>
>>> The word "rag" here means "ragstone", is that correct?
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>>
>>
>>
>
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