GR translation: getting to recognize faces, coughs, pairs of boots on new owners

[Mike Jing]

Could be, but unlikely. "Coughs" are most likely from DPs suffering from
sickness as he himself did, "pairs of boots on new owners" are likely to be
stolen as his own shoes were.


On Sat, Nov 29, 2025 at 10:18 PM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> Correct re the new owners of the boots, though since Thanatz is going
> round and round the circuit they could be faces, coughs and shod feet of
> the officials.
>
> On 29/11/2025 14:10, Mike Jing wrote:
> > V669.18-25, P682.24-31   He is rubber-stamped on hands, forehead, and
> ass,
> > deloused, poked, palpated, named, numbered, consigned, invoiced,
> misrouted,
> > detained, ignored. He passes in and out the paper grasp of Russian,
> > British, American and French body-jobbers, round and round the occupation
> > circuit, getting to recognize faces, coughs, pairs of boots on new
> owners.
> > Without a ration card or Soldbuch, you are doomed to be moved, in lots of
> > 2,000, center to center, about the Zone, possibly forever.
> >
> > Here, I assume "owners" means owners of the pairs of boots. The published
> > translation interpreted it as owners of Thanatz's person, i.e.
> > the body-jobbers, which I don't think is correct. Instead, I understand
> > these "faces, coughs, pairs of boots on new owners" are about his fellow
> > DPs. Moreover, the published translation thinks "faces" and "coughs" are
> > modified by the adjective phrase "on new owners" along with "pairs of
> > boots", which doesn' make sense to me. Am I right about this?
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>