GR translation: Far from rag, snow, lacerated streets

[Jochen Stremmel]

David has something there but in the case of "rag" his advice is hard to
follow: Mike has to decide which of the different "rags" P had in mind
here.

The German translation has "Lärm" [Laerm] (noise) and although the
translator is one of the very best (and the word does make sense in the
context) I cannot see where he did get it from.

2017-06-10 4:00 GMT+02:00 David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:

> 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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