GR translation: Far from rag, snow, lacerated streets

[Mike Weaver]

I'm with Dave Morris on this. I see rag as simply torn material, either 
shredded flags - companion of the previous phrase's 'placards'-  the 
remnants of demonstrations or street fighting  or that Galina was a 
child of poverty, clothed in rags and her circumstance now somewhat 
improved, they are a motif of her childhood, or both and even clothing 
torn by gunfire - lacerated in fact.
A straight translation works for all.

On 10-Jun-17 9:40 AM, Mike Jing wrote:
> "Noise" probably came from this:
>
> rag, n.4
>
> Chiefly University slang.
>
>    Originally: an act of ragging (see rag v.3); spec. a noisy debate or
> rowdy celebration, esp. as carried on in defiance of authority or
> discipline; (also) a boisterous prank or practical joke. Now usually:
> a programme of satirical revues, frivolous stunts, parades, etc.,
> organized by students to raise money for charity. Now chiefly in
> compounds.
>
> 1825   J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl.   Rag,..2) a debate
> or contention.
> 1864   H. Sidgwick Let. July in A. Sidgwick & E. M. Sidgwick H.
> Sidgwick (1906) ii. 111   They enjoy beer, tobacco and students'
> ‘rags’.
> 1892   Isis No. 13. 88/2   The College is preparing for a good old rag to-night.
> 1894   W. H. Wilkins & H. Vivian Green Bay Tree I. 275   It was the
> usual senseless ‘rag’ in which Pimlico and his friends were wont to
> indulge at their convivial gatherings.
> 1930   J. Buchan Castle Gay iv. 60,   I do not wish to have my name
> associated with an undergraduate—‘rag’, I think is the word.
> 1975   Times 23 May 14/5   Students at the University of East Anglia
> have admitted their guilt, in the cause of a forthcoming student rag.
> 1990   N. Annan Our Age vi. 90   The philistine members of Our Age
> wanted to regard life as a rag in order to forget the Great War.
>
> Maybe the celebration after the revolution? Seems a bit far-fetched,
> but that's just me.
>
> Compare this with:
>
> rag, n.1
>
>   2. Any hard, coarse sedimentary rock that can be readily broken into
> thick slabs for use as paving, whetstones, etc.; = ragstone n. 1.
> Formerly also †in pl. with sing. concord.
>
> 1847   Tennyson Princess iii. 64   Hornblende, rag and trap and tuff.
> 1879   F. Rutley Study of Rocks iii. 20   Some..as the Kentish rag,
> afford good building stones.
> 1908   Geogr. Jrnl. 32 277   The Hythe Beds, an important
> water-bearing bed, consist of alternate layers of hard limestone and
> chert termed rag.
> 1942   Mariner's Mirror 28 21   The transport of coral rag and firewood.
> 2005   Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 15 June 7   The
> farmhouse is an attractive south-facing property traditionally
> constructed with stone and part cob elevations under a rag slate roof.
>
> Not quite obvious either, but it's indeed singular and without
> article. I was just thinking of the paving stones on those "lacerated
> streets".
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 10, 2017 at 1:36 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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
>>>>>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=nchon-l
>


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