GR translation: She missed the International Brigades

[Mike Jing]

I see. So "the flowers, children, kisses, and many tongues of Barcelona"
must be referring to the farewell parade held for the volunteers
in Barcelona on November 15, 1938.

Thanks, Mike.


On Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 9:18 AM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> It means she wasn't involved with the International Brigades, but was a
> guerilla in the already fascist occupied mountains of Asturia, the IB
> being based in republican areas to the south.
>
> On 29/08/2025 07:43, Mike Jing wrote:
> > V605.25-38, P616.9-22   Manuela doesn’t feel obliged to join in. Valencia
> > was one of the last cities to fall to Franco. She herself is really from
> > the Asturias, which knew him first, felt his cruelty two years before the
> > civil war even began for the rest of Spain. She watches Marvy’s face as
> he
> > pays Monika, watches him in this primal American act, paying, more deeply
> > himself than when coming, or asleep, or maybe even dying. Marvy isn’t her
> > first, but almost her first, American. The clientele here at Putzi’s is
> > mostly British. During the War—how many camps and cities since her
> capture
> > in ’38?—it was German. She missed the International Brigades, shut away
> up
> > in her cold green mountains and fighting hit-and-run long after the
> > Fascists had occupied all the north—missed the flowers, children, kisses,
> > and many tongues of Barcelona, of Valencia where she’s never been,
> > Valencia, this evening’s home. . . . Ya salimos de España. . . . Pa’
> luchar
> > en otros frentes, ay, Manuela, ay, Manuela. . . .
> >
> > What does "missed" mean here? Was she actually a guerrilla, "shut away up
> > in her cold green mountains and fighting hit-and-run long after the
> > Fascists had occupied all the north?"
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>