GR translation: be he always in flower

[Robert Mahnke]

Not 100% sure of it, but I think “be he in flower” means “may he be in flower”, an expressed wish for the thing to be so.


> On Aug 16, 2025, at 12:39 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> V580.3-13, P590.1-11   “You have the two choices,” Jamf cried, his last
> lecture of the year: outside were the flowery strokings of wind, girls in
> pale-colored dresses, oceans of beer, male choruses intensely, movingly
> lifted as they sang Semper sit in flores/ Semper sit in flo-ho-res . . .
> “stay behind with carbon and hydrogen, take your lunch-bucket in to the
> works every morning with the faceless droves who can’t wait to get in out
> of the sunlight—or move beyond. Silicon, boron, phosphorus—these can
> replace carbon, and can bond to nitrogen instead of hydrogen—” a few
> snickers here, not unanticipated by the playful old pedagogue, be he always
> in flower: his involvement in getting Weimar to subsidize the IG’s
> Stickstoff Syndikat was well known—
> 
> What does the inversion of subject and verb in "be he always in flower"
> indicate here?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l