Not P but Moby-Dick (31)

[Mike Jing]

Out of the five existing translations I have at hand, three interpreted
"gaped" as "open-mouthed", which makes "open-mouthed at times" redundant,
while the other two interpreted it as "yawning", which doesn't seem right
either. As a matter of fact, even the word "yawning" that follows doesn't
seem to mean literally yawning, but only indicates his laid-back attitude.
Is that correct?



On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 12:39 AM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> To gape is to stare, slack jawed, as if unimpressed by the field of
> view—or speechlessly overwhelmed by it. One might gape with boredom or
> wonder. The context is pretty clear in this case.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Oct 23, 2023, at 8:03 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > From Chapter 48:
> >
> > Besides he all the time looked so easy and indolent himself, so
> loungingly
> > managed his steering-oar, and so broadly gaped—open-mouthed at times—that
> > the mere sight of such a yawning commander, by sheer force of contrast,
> > acted like a charm upon the crew.
> >
> > What's the difference between "gaped" and "open-mouthed" here?
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>