AtD translation: the title

[Mike Jing]

I got that mixed up. Apparently, Pychon's wife met with the Japanese
translator of Gravity's Rainbow. Sorry for the confusion.


On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 9:11 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> As a matter of fact, that's the title adopted by the Japanese translation,
> which, incidentally, is identical in Chinese: "逆光". However, I'm not quite
> enamoured with it because of all the other connotations lost in such a
> choice, but that may just be my own bias. It was reported that Pynchon had
> personally met with the Japanese translator, so asking the author himself
> may not even help that much, but I still would like to try if I get a
> chance.
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 4, 2019 at 7:40 PM <protomen at protonmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The title also works as a literal translation of "à contre-jour", going
>> against the light in the sense of towards it, especially when blinding
>> effects are implicit - like flaring in photography. This may be what the
>> translations you find were focusing on with the daybright emphasis,
>> contrary to the passage you quote.
>>
>>
>>
>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>> On Friday, January 4, 2019 6:22 AM, Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > I'm still busy with other things, but I thought it would be a good idea
>> to
>> > think about how to translate the title, which I find rather difficult.
>> The
>> > prevailing Chinese translation I can find is "抵抗白昼", or roughly
>> "Resisting
>> > Daylight", and I'm not sure it's correct. Here's a passage from an
>> article
>> > in Chinese written about the book shortly after it was published, which
>> I
>> > have translated into English below:
>> >
>> > 'For Pynchon, the world of daylight is reality, tyranny, a waking
>> > nightmare, it's what the characters in the book are striving to run away
>> > from. At the beginning of the book, Pynchon quotes black American jazz
>> > musician Thelonious Monk: "it's always dark, in other words, we don't
>> need
>> > light." Light signifies daylight, and the book title suggests that the
>> > characters are resisting daylight, seeking the refuge of the night,
>> looking
>> > for transcendence in the fourth dimension, hoping to escape the
>> shackles of
>> > reality and live according to their own free will.'
>> >
>> > The problem here is that the quote from Monk was completely butchered.
>> In
>> > the original quote, the word "or" means "otherwise", not "in other
>> words".
>> > I consider this a major mistake, and it weakens the author's argument
>> > considerably. Of course, the rest of what she said here may still be
>> true,
>> > but the quote certainly does not help make the case.
>> >
>> > Any thoughts and ideas will be greatly appreciated.
>> >
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>>
>>