AtD translation: a white horse borne against the sky

Joseph Tracy brook7 at sover.net
Wed May 15 07:42:11 CDT 2019


He isn’t seeing anything, he is is waiting for a sign of some kind, these being examples of the kinds of things he imagines he might see. The phrase  "borne against the sky”  is a fairly traditional use of born/borne meaning carried, in this case carried aloft.  The black rush is another darker option of what his imagination is waiting to see. 
> On May 8, 2019, at 11:53 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The question I have is how he sees the white horse in the sky transition
> into "a black rush of hair streaming unruly."  It seems his seeing a
> dramatic mythical statue scene. But that is his analogy to what he really
> sees.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 8:42 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> P297.5-10   The longer he stayed in this town, the less he was finding out.
>> The point of diminishing returns was fast approaching. Yet now, as the
>> trail ascended, as snowlines drew nearer and the wind became sovereign, he
>> found himself waiting for some split-second flare out there at the edges of
>> what he could see, a white horse borne against the sky, a black rush of
>> hair streaming unruly as the smoke that marbles the flames of Perdition.
>> 
>> What does the word "borne" mean here? (I do know it's the past participle
>> of "bear".)
>> 
>> According to the OED:
>> 
>> bear, v.1
>> 
>> Main senses: I. to carry; II. to sustain; III. to thrust, press; IV. to
>> bring forth.
>> 
>> In which sense is it used here?
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