GR translation: wear their lung on their breasts

[Mike Jing]

You are absolutely right, it's clearly fashioned after similar idiomatic
phrases. I thought it might mean they are coughing their lungs out due to
whatever affliction they're suffering, possibly caused by smoking.

As a practical matter, I see no choice but to translate the sentence
literally, and let the reader figure out what the metaphor means.


On Sun, Feb 23, 2025 at 6:49 AM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> I've been away but can't see an answer - it's a reference to wearing
> your heart on your sleeve -  so displaying their addiction openly maybe?
>
> On 18/02/2025 01:40, Mike Jing wrote:
> > V373.11-12, P379.10-11   Old men with their tins searching the ground for
> > cigarette butts wear their lung on their breasts.
> >
> > What does "wear their lung on their breasts" mean exactly?
> >
> > The second edition of the published translation revised "lung" to mean
> > "respirator", which of course is nonsense,
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>