GR translation: with the just-sprung rye blowing

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Mike. I understand "nap". Yes, it's probably the wrong time for
flowering. But even if it is, it still seems odd to describe stalks of
grain as "blossoming" since their flowers are not very prominent.

On Sun, Jun 25, 2017 at 6:29 AM, Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> See here <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nap_%28textile%29>for 'nap'
> Another question is whether sprung means sprouted or flowered, the 'stalks'
> suggests flowering but that wouldn't be green, so  this would be the young
> leaves of the rye, lifted by the wind.
>
> cheers
> Mike
>
>
> On 25-Jun-17 11:06 AM, Mike Jing wrote:
>
> V424.32-425.3, P431.31-432.3   Green rye and low hills for miles all
> around: Pökler was by a small trench, in the Sarnaki target area,
> pointing his binoculars south toward Blizna like everybody else:
> waiting. Erwartung in the crosshairs, with the just-sprung rye
> blowing, its gentler nap being brushed up by the wind . . . look down
> at this countryside, down through Rocket-miles of morning space: the
> many shades of forest green, Polish farmhouses white and brown, dark
> eels of rivers catching the sun at their curves . . . and at the very
> center down there, in the holy X, Pökler, crucified, invisible at
> first look, but in a moment . . . now beginning to resolve as the fall
> gathers momentum—
>        But how can he believe in its reality up there? Insects whine,
> the sun is almost warm, he can gaze off at the red earth and millions
> of blowing stalks, and fall nearly into a light trance . . .
>
> What does "blowing" mean in "with the just-sprung rye blowing" and
> "millions of blowing stalks"? The published translation interpreted it
> as "blossoming", which seems wrong to me. I took it as "blowing in the
> wind".
>
> They also had "nap" as "a snooze", which is definitely wrong.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=nchon-l
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