GR translation: they are transubstantiated

[János Széky]

I think it's safe to use (b). In old European folklore bread is kind of a
sacred object, and as leavening is not 100pct sure, it used to be something
protected via magical rites.
It means when Christmas comes around (no one could foresee in May how much
food would be available in December in war-torn Germany).

Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> ezt írta (időpont: 2025. jan.
29., Sze, 9:20):

> V368.25-30, P374.22-27    . . . by now it’s clear that they’re human
> bodies, dug from beneath today’s rubble, each inside its carefully tagged
> GI fartsack. But it was more than an optical mistake. They are rising, they
> are transubstantiated, and who knows, with summer over and hungry winter
> coming down, what we’ll be feeding on by Xmas?
>
> The word "transubstantiate" has two basic meanings:
>
> a. transitive. To change from one substance into another; to transform,
> transmute.
>
> b. spec. in Theology: see transubstantiation n. 2.
>
> Clearly, both meanings are intended here, (a) being the apparent meaning,
> with connotation of (b). Problem is, in Chinese, the two meanings are
> represented by different words. If I choose (a), the connotation of (b)
> will be lost. But if I choose (b), it doesn't quite work either because
> what's happening here is not the same as the transubstantiation in
> Theology, but rather the reverse. This is just one example of the kind of
> problems you may run into when translating between languages that are
> sufficiently different.
>
> By the way, in "what we’ll be feeding on by Xmas", does "by Xmas" mean at
> the time when Xmas comes around, or does it mean between now and Xmas?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>