Thursday, May 12, 2022

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 27

Line 27: "As for her lital gill, the da's reel darter, shutter up in a lumatrick asylence, like at Pranginstein's or finalee herein Saif Handrue's house-piddle."

Non-Lucy-Lips version: "As for her little girl, the dad's real daughter, shut her up in a lunatic asylum, like at Ivry-sur-Seine's or finally here in Saint Andrew's hospital."

"lital"
"Lit" possibly in the sense that Lucia means light (although you'd get the same "lit" in "little" itself). Perhaps with a sense of "literal" as in Lucia is literally a fish that her mother has caught, since we're going with the Lucia as a fish metaphor in this sentence.

"gill"
Since Nora has been associated with the ocean being that her last name is Barnacle, and soon after called a "fishermum," we get Lucia in this sentence as her catch, being described as a "gill" and a "darter."

"reel darter"
Lucia, the darter, was caught by reel.

"shutter up"
Literally shut her up in an asylum to shut her up from spreading family secrets.

"lumatrick asylence"
"Luma" suggests "illuminate" but only vaguely. Seeing that Lucia means light, it seems worth mentioning. As in Lucia's illumination was tricked into an asylum where she was silenced. We also simply have "ma" as in the mother who "tricked" her into "sylence".

"Pranginstein's"
I only suggested that "Prangenstein's" stands for "Ivry-sur-Seine" because it's somewhat similar and it's where Lucia was kept before being transferred to Saint Andrew's. Obviously it also suggests "Frankenstein" but with a "Prang" in front which totally means something that I can't wrap my head around. I suppose just suggesting Frankenstein is enough, suggesting Lucia was a dangerous threat and had to be locked away or destroyed. Although she was a fish in the first half of the sentence so I'm probably missing quite a bit here.

"Saif Handrue's"
"Saif" is an Arabic word that means sword or scimitar, or the protector of something. It also suggests Saint Andrew's was a safe place. "Handrue's" has me stumped, aside from "rue," to regret. But why regret what the hand has done? Perhaps it was a ruse done with a bit of sleight of hand by her mother, getting her locked up in Saint Andrew's?

"house-piddle"
The hospital smells like piss.

No comments:

Post a Comment