Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 44

Line 44: "The sauce of her, now!"

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "The source of her, now!"
So what is Lucy's "source of life" now? The son, Giorgio? The actual sun? Jesus? Herself since she is a representation of all of those in the previous sentence?! Is she her own source of life (and lies!)?

"sauce of her"
Is this gross? This sounds gross. I suppose the things that make us who we are, our passions and our drives and our kinks, could be thought of as sauce. It's the stuff we stew in and the stuff which completes us and the stuff that makes us less bland.

"now!"
It wasn't always this way! She wasn't always her own source of life. So something has changed. She's had some kind of breakthrough. This is probably why she's having another bildungsroman late in life. We'll probably learn more about this as we read further.

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 43

Line 43: "The bride-green yawns strich all orerrnd her, wid the poplores, erlms and faroof bildungs all roturnin' in her planetree obit, undherstood still art the cindre like the Son, the veri soeurce of lied."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "The wide green lawns stretch all around her, with the poplars, elms and far-off buildings all rotating in her planetary orbit, and her stood still at the centre like the sun, the very source of light."

"bride-green"
Lucia as bride. But does the "green" mean she's an innocent virgin as in inexperienced or does it mean she's totally done loads of guys (which she has possibly including Samuel Beckett although he was really pining for her father) as in Frost's poem about nothing gold can stay because it becomes all experienced and green? Or is this a reference to The Bride of Frankenstein which it totally could be because that movie came out in 1935. Remember how she referenced Frankenstein earlier?

"yawns strich"
Lucia is coming awake (yawning and striching) as she leaves the hospital to enter the natural grounds surrounding it. Perhaps this is why she feels like a green bride. It's like when Madonna was all, "You make me feel like I've never fucked before!" It's also an obsolete term for an owl which would be just like Moore to throw around obsolete words he probably uses on the regular. If I really wanted to spend a lot of time writing nonsense explications for this stuff, I'd be following the possibility of The Bride of Frankenstein and the owl as the main thematic aspects of Lucia's subconscious thoughts. But I don't have the time. I'm fifty already!

"all orerrnd her"
"All around her" while setting up the metaphor of the orrery with Lucia at the center (in the Non-Lucy-Lips version of her thought). Also suggestive of an error with "err" but what would that be? An error that Lucia is even here? Perhaps "bride-green" suggests "bridegroom" in reference to Giorgio which was an error?

"wid"
Suggestive of "widow" now that Giorgio has died? Giorgio is the only lover Lucia has thought about so far. I'm probably reaching with the Giorgio stuff although this really makes the whole Bride of Frankenstein thing work since Giorgio was a monster.

"poplores, erlms and faroof"
Come on, Alan! Don't get so abstract that my Lit degree can't even help like it will help me in the entry on "bildungs"! This all just sounds like trees (and a roof!) turned into absolute nonsense! This is the 43rd time that it hits me: this section should be worked out in a discussion group and not by me sitting alone and sad in a tiny office while I listen to "Only Women Bleed" through ear buds. Maybe I should attack these one at a time the way Frankenstein would.

"poplores"
Pop Tarts? Oh! The first obvious being that Lucia is unhealthily fixated on her father is "pop"! So maybe we're referencing the "lore" of her "pop" here. In other words, Finnegans Wake or Ulysses or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or whatever else he wrote. The actual Lucy-Lips change is the "lars" with "lores" which makes "lores" the important part of this word. "Lore" can equate to the past or to the fairy tales and mythology Lucia previously mentioned. It is oral tradition, wisdom and history passed by word of mouth. Which is what Lucia is doing with her Lucy-Lips. Although, technically, her language needs to be read to really understand it all. But ignore that because Alan Moore paints it as the words expanding and entering the listener's mind fully formed with all of their meaning, at least when the Angles speak.

"erlms"
"Elms" but with an "r" shoved into the middle. Perhaps "early"? "Her lms"? "Early Ms"? Maybe it's just comparing Lucia to the elms with "her limbs." You stumped me, Moore! Being raised on boring American crossword puzzles, I'm at a disadvantage with this kind of crossword clue, what we call "cryptic crosswords" in the states.

"faroof"
"Far off" but suggestive of the roof of the buildings in contrast with the trees. The buildings located around the grounds are "far off" and distant, no longer within the concerns of Lucia. Oh wait! Putting them all back together, maybe we get something like "the lore from far off realms"? Yep. Got it. That's definitely it and I don't have to think about it any more.

"bildungs"
"Buildings" but turned into "bildungs" as in bildungsroman, a story dealing with a person's coming of age or spiritual awakening. This might be due to Lucia constantly thinking about the formative moments of her past or it could suggest that Lucia, around 80 years of age, has become a new person and is facing a new set of formative years in her moments of freedom from Saint Andrew's Hospital, or from the "bildungs."

"roturnin'"
"Rotating" and "turning" as the spheres on the orrery of which Lucia is at the center. The two words together, describing the motion of the Non-Lucy-Lips sentence's main metaphor, become "returning." As in Lucia is returning to, possibly, her childhood through memory and the adventure of exploring the grounds, the "far off realms."

"planetree"
"Planetary" for the metaphor but more literally a flat expanse surrounded or dotted with trees (the planets in orbit around Lucia).

"obit"
"Orbit" but getting back to the all important spectre of death hanging over everything ("obit-" meaning perished; "obitus" meaning death in Latin). Also often used in place of "obituary" as this chapter could be seen as Moore's obituary for Lucia Joyce. Especially if she dies at the end of it! Shh! Don't spoil it for me!

"undherstood"
"And her stood" (British equivalent of the American "and her standing") but turned almost perfectly into the word "understood." Lucia understands something, perhaps to do with her coming death ("obit")?

"still art"
As a still life. Picture the moment: Lucia standing in a wide empty space with various trees surrounding her at different distances. A moment in the life of a spinning and vibrant solar system of trees and Lucia.

"cindre"
"Cindre" for "centre" because the sun, a glowing hot "cinder", rests at the center of the solar system, or, in this case, the orrery. Lucia is that glowing cinder, burning with lore of her strange past.

"like the Son"
Lucia, at the center of the orrery, compares herself to the sun. But she's also comparing herself to Jesus, possibly due to her persecution by others, possibly simply because of the things her schizophrenia has her believing. The mental connections caused by schizophrenia between everything in the universe can seem quite godlike and all-knowing.

"the veri soeurce of lied."
The sun and, in this case, Jesus are seen as "the very source of light." But here we get both "lied" and "veri" (as in the Latin for truth or reality). Lucia cannot discern the difference between reality and illusion due to her mental illness. It is her "light" that shines on and defines her surroundings. It's possible "soeurce" is meant to suggest Eurydice who was abandoned to Hades because of an act of love. Lucia was sent to the hospital by her father though he was quite against it because he felt it was the best thing for Lucia.

This was the first sentence in a new paragraph so some of the things I've speculated may work into larger metaphors through the paragraph. Or they may go nowhere!

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 42

Line 42: "Wye, summertimes she hurdly gnos whatch finny-form she's in at prisent, or if altimately alder not-houses might nut torn out to bye the selfshame plaice, one vurst istabilismend trance-ending innernotional bindaries and filt-wit fausty dactyrs tyin' to gut hauled ov hert sole."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "Why, sometimes she hardly knows which funny farm she's in at present, or if ultimately all the nuthouses might not turn out to be the selfsame place, one cursed establishment transcending international boundaries and filled with fussy/Faustian doctors trying to get a hold of her soul."

"Wye"
Wye is a village in Kent. According to Wikipedia, it's name derives from the Old English word for "idol" or "shrine." This is the first word of this sentence so maybe it's just directing the reader to think along religious or small villages in the United Kingdom lines. In railroad terms, a wye is a triangular junction. So maybe we're chugging into a train metaphor.

"summertimes"
"Sometimes," perhaps most often in the "summer" because that's when Lucia will most likely be enjoying the hospital's grounds, Lucia hardly knows where she is. This also suggests that the look of the place transforms in summer (and probably spring but I think we worked through the spring motifs already) and is hardly recognizable from the probably bare and dour grounds in the middle of winter.

"she hurdly gnos"
A "hurdle" is an obstacle which one must get over or past. Here, as she's thinking about the asylum, it probably represents Saint Andrew's Hospital. "Gnos" almost certainly refers to "gnostic" or knowing/knowledge. It's replacing the word "knows" in a clever bit of wordplay.

"whatch"
Lucia hardly knows to "which" booby "hatch" she's been confined.

"finny-form"
Lucia refers to the hospital as a "funny farm." But a "finny-form" could be a fish which she has been compared to previously.

"prisent"
The asylum she is "presently" in is a "prison."

"altimately"
"Ultimately" Lucia might find herself in "alternate" asylums.

"alder not-houses"
I'm not sure why the "alder" for "other" other than her mind is still on the natural beauty of the grounds she's about to explore around the "nut house" which is in no way a real home to her ("not-houses"). Perhaps the alder is mentioned because of its nut-like seeds?

"nut torn out to bye"
Lucia, being mentally ill (the colloquial "nut") has been "torn out" of her life to which she had to say "goodbye."

"selfshame plaice"
Being relegated to a "funny farm" causes Lucia to feel "shame" for her "self" which she might not feel if it hadn't been stigmatized to this degree. A "plaice" is another kind of "finny-form," or fish.

"one vurst istabilismend trance-ending innernotional bindaries"
Lucia sees Saint Andrew's Hospital as the Dead-Dead Gang see it in the previous Book: one establishment composed of all the different asylums across time and space. Lucia especially often cannot tell if she's in Saint Andrew's Hospital or one of the French asylums she spent time in or the place in Switzerland where she was treated by Carl Jung. And her thoughts and perceptions bleed into the space around her, changing it fundamentally so that it becomes all of those places all at once.

"vurst"
Possibly suggestive of "worst" in that they combine to create the worst place mentally and spiritually where a person can be kept. But it also suggests "versed" as in to gain knowledge ("gnos"), just not the kind society would deem beneficial or acceptable. Perhaps "first" as in the "ur" hospital.

"istabilismend"
The place is meant to "stabilize" a patient's mind and to "mend" their mental illness. But perhaps the medication and observations of the staff actually d"istabilis"e their minds.

"trance-ending"
Either the hospital is meant to "end" the "trance" or mental illness of the person deposited within its walls or regular life outside the walls can be seen as a "trance" of rote, meaningless nonsense which mental illness "ends." Schizophrenics would certainly understand the idea of their illness giving them insight and knowledge, waking them from the living trance that the rest of us are in by showing them a different (and more substantial in many ways) reality. It's why they often stop taking medication, seeing it as dulling their senses and cutting them off from their link to all knowledge.

"innernotional bindaries"
A person's inner thoughts could be their "inner notions" which the hospital "binds" with medication. Most of these descriptors of the "cursed establishment transcending international boundaries" describe a place that ultimately "binds" knowledge, knowledge of oneself (inner notions) and perhaps the universe (meditative trances that could bring a person closer to meaning). It binds whatever processes (stabilizes) that cause a schizophrenic to see how it all connects.

"filt-wit"
The hospital and the doctors "filter" the "wit" of patients. More evidence that Lucia feels they are trying to suppress her imagination, beliefs, and insights which her mental illness allows her.

"fausty dactyrs"
This could simply be translated as "fussy doctors" but with the bit at the end of the sentence where Lucia mentions they're trying to take her soul, she might actually mean "Faustian doctors." Although then they'd be Mephistopheles, right? Anyway, the short cut of calling a deal with devil Faustian is what's going on here. "Dactyrs" could be because the doctors are always poking and prodding her with their fingers. It could also just be a reference to Faust, a poem, although I don't know if it were written in dactyls or not.

"tyin'"
I'm sure Lucia has often been restrained by doctors, nurses, and orderlies.

"to gut hauled ov hert sole."
"To gut" can be to eviscerate, metaphorically here (I hope!). The doctors often "hert" or disappoint Lucia. She is often forced or pushed ("hauled") to do things she doesn't want to. Perhaps "hauled ov" suggests "hauled or raked over the coals," something the doctors often to to her to keep her in line when she's acting out or in a terrible mood. All of this leaves her feeling alone ("sole").

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 41

Line 41: "Heir at Feint Andruse Cycle-logical Infirmitry it is entimely passible, in Lussye's questimation, to slep from the birthly whelm intru a terrortree o' feary-tell and eld mirthology, where every mutterforth is an immadiate and enternal troth."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "Here at Saint Andrew's Psychological Infirmary it is entirely possible, in Lucia's estimation, to slip from the earthly realm into a territory of fairy tale and old mythology, where every uttered/muttered word is an immediate and eternal truth."

"Heir at Feint Andruse Cycle-logical Infirmitry"
Lucia takes on the baggage (possibly treatment), or inheritance, of Saint Andrew's Hospital.

"Feint Andruse Cycle-logical Infirmitry"
A feint is a deceptive blow. A ruse is a deceptive gambit. Lucia sees Saint Andrew's as trying to deceive. This fits into her paranoia and the way she sees the doctors as actors and the nurses as pretending at their compassion. Lucia sees the program at Saint Andrew's as a constant cycle of deceptive logic, tricking the patients into believing they need to be there while tricking the patients' friends and families that they're helping them to get better. The patients are kept infirm even though Lucia tries ("itry") to come to a place where she can mend the seam in her mind and life.

"entimely passible"
Saint Andrew's consumes Lucia's life, time passing without any noticeable difference between the days.

"Lussye's questimation"
Lucia spelled in a way that evokes Ulysses. Ulysses' quest was merely to get home, the same as Lucia's here. But it took him ten years. Lucia's has taken quite a bit more ("entimely passible") and, spoiler, she'll never make it home. She is stuck in the cycle of deceptive healing here at the hospital (as she sees it! Don't sue me for libel, Saint Andrew's Hospital!).

"to slep from the birthly whelm"
"To slip from the earthly realm" is both to die and to travel in some magical or supernatural way into another world. This can also be done by sleeping ("slep") by way of dreaming. Slipping from the "birthly" realm also suggests dying as birth gives life and leaving life is death. Am I being patronizing enough in my explications? I'm trying my best to rise above my legacy of constantly getting "expand on this thought" comments on college papers.

"whelm"
This can mean to engulf or to bury, both of which Lucia sees as having happened to her. But it also means to surge like a tide. Lucia, being water, may have it in her yet to overcome the restraints (jesses) put on her by the staff and medication so that she can "slip the earthly realm" and fly free.

"intru"
Lucia slips the earthly realm "into" the "truth" of fairy tales and mythology.

"terrortree"
The "territory" of fairy tales and mythology can be full of "terror." Also she is wandering into the grounds of Saint Andrew's Hospital which contains groves of trees which she will explore.

"feary-tell"
Fairy tales are tales told to invoke fear so that the listener can learn society's mores.

"eld mirthology"
"Eld" is simply another way of expressing "old age." Lucia has become an old woman here in the daily cycle of the hospital, time passing quickly from birth to death in the stagnancy of "heir" days. Lucia finds the stories in "mythology" amusing or "mirthful."

"mutterforth"
I translated this into "uttered word/muttered word" although that seems a stretch. I'm not sure what else it could be though. Every word "muttered forth" from Lucia's lips literally contains immediate and eternal truths as her Lucy-Lips language contains multitudes of unconscious meanings in each single statement. "Muttering" is also hard to understand as is Lucia's language. Mutter could also be "mother" which could be connected to "immadiate" as it contains "I'm mad at."

"immadiate"
Perhaps Lucia's immediate feelings are often rage ("immad", "I'm mad"). This would make sense based on what she sees as an imprisonment in a place that is constantly trying to fool her. And we see that the doctors and nurses take special care to observe her moods before letting her out on the grounds on her own. Today she has shown them she's in a pleasant mood (probably fooled them as much of her Lucy-Lips dialogue suggests her anger still surges beneath the surface) and so is allowed out to explore the grounds on her own.

"enternal troth."
"Troth" is both "truth" and a "pledged loyalty," as one might do when on a "quest." Lucia is "entering" into a "troth." But who is she pledging her loyalty to? Surely not the staff at the hospital. Possibly herself, as she's on "Lussye's quest"? Her eternal truth is to return to home and family (although her family are all dead by now and she has no home to return to).

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 40

Line 40: "Her, she carn miander reedily betwin her pa'stime and her fewcheers; betorn hear an' dare; betwhether wan welt under noxt."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "Here, she can meander readily between her past and her future; between here and there; between one world and the next.
Lucia wanders the grounds thinking about her life and her travels and what might be when she dies.

"Her"
Lucia is herself here on the grounds, away from the influence of family, friends, doctors, and nurses.

"carn"
Can but with cairn, a memorial made of stones, as a grave. Lucia has been interred in this place which will eventually become a memorial to her (as she will eventually be buried on the grounds and people will visit on Bloomsday).

"miander"
To wander but along a predetermined course, as a river (Lucia is a river!). Lucia has been MIA (Missing In Action) since being interred in this hospital.

"reedily"
Reeds grow on the banks of rivers and sway lazily.

"betwin"
Perhaps a suggestion of Giorgio, her sibling although not quite her twin. Perhaps "be twin" suggests Lucia is like a slender reed. Suggestive of winning a bet although I don't know how that fits with Lucia's life.

"pa'stime"
"Pa's time." Her past was the time of her and her father.

"fewcheers"
Her future has little to cheer about.

"betorn"
Remember how Lucia has "quit the seam"? Her mind is torn between her life before the asylum and her life after, between there (her "pa'stime") and here (her "fewcheers").

"hear an' dare"
Her past is now just stories that can be told, or heard. The future is what she may dare to do.

"betwhether"
Whether Lucia is in the past or the future, alive or dead, it is sometimes hard to bet on.

"wan welt"
Lucia is pale and weak, perhaps even showing signs of being beaten or restrained by the doctors and aides from the previous sentence.

"under noxt"
Lucia has lived in the world of her freedom and dancing. She is currently in the world of the asylum which feels like being interred in a crypt or buried "under" ground. The entire thing is noxious, poisonous, unpleasant.

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 39

Line 39: "The weir and wen of it der knot same so influxable as some lockations that hav intertrained her persence down orcross the docaides."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "The where and when of it does not seem so inflexible as some locations that have entertained her presence down across the decades."

"weir"
The Oxford dictionary defines "weir" as "a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow." Since Lucia is water, Saint Andrew's Hospital and its staff must be the dam which regulates Lucia's moods. Possibly also simply her enjoyment of the beautiful grounds are a major factor in her ups and downs. Her mood rises and lowers depending on the season and how the hospital's grounds look, in flower or stripped bare by winter.

"wen"
This could either mean a boil or, in the archaic sense, a large or overcrowded city. Does Alan Moore have a specific idea for all of his word choices or does he sometimes just go, "What's a homophone for this word? I'll just make it that. Probably means something!" Although I don't think Alan Moore would be that careless with his spells (yes, his writing is his spellcasting). So this probably means both. The asylum is large and overcrowded and also that its inhabitants were boils on the world and had to be excised and tossed in the bin.

"der knot"
Lucia invoking German with the article "der" but placing it on the English "knot." This is most likely a callback to "nicht" in the previous sentence since Moore's paragraphs tend to remain thematically linked, and metaphors tend to continue throughout the entire paragraph.

"knot"
Lucia has become entangled in the asylum and cannot free herself.

"knot same"
Lucia is not the same as when she was free of this place. Or, simply, she changes like the seasons, never being the same person as the day before.

"influxable"
This is a good one! "Inflexible" means unwilling to change while "in flux" means constantly changing. So as stated previously, Lucia is never the same and in constant flux. But perhaps she, and everything, is also inflexible in that, according to the themes of Jerusalem, time and history are static and unchanging. What happened, happened, always and constantly.

"lockations"
Lucia is locked inside this location.

"intertrained"
Here we have "inter" again, meaning Lucia has been shut up in what is essentially her grave (she dies on the grounds of Saint Andrew's Hospital). She is also trained to act a certain way, by means of doctor's coercion, medication, and strict daily routines.

"persence"
Lucia's person is her presence. Also could be that each ("per") of Lucia's senses ("sence") have been trained by the staff.

"down orcross"
Earlier, Lucia was described as a puzzle. She was also described as letters in the spoonerism resulting from crossing her t's and dotting her i's. Here, she is a crossword puzzle, a puzzle that must be solved by interjoined and knotted words.

"docaides"
"Decades" but with "doctor" and "aides," suggesting that she has been "interred" and "trained" by the staff of Saint Andrew's Hospital for decades.

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Line 38

Line 38: "Bud wort she likes the bestival apout her current reasidance is how it olders with the saysongs, nava quit the seam firm one die to the nicht."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "But what she likes the best of all about her current residence is how it alters with the seasons, never quite the same from one day to the next."

"Bud wort"
When we last left Lucia, she was in a bush. Plus this sentence is about the seasons and flowers and plants are some of the best indicators of changes in the seasons other than all the other obvious indicators like temperature and constellations and how high in the sky the sun gets and calendars.

"bestival"
"Festival," as in a celebration, often in regards to the changing of the seasons.

"apout"
One of the definitions of "pout" is to make oneself look sexually attractive which is weird and makes me realize that old men wrote the dictionary. "Oh my! Look at the vixen with the petulant expression of a child! By Jove, I would like to intercourse with her!"

"current"
Remember, Lucia is both water and light! Also the River Liffey which is Lucia!

"current reasidance"
"Current resident" is how you address somebody on correspondence to a place but you don't know exactly who lives there. The ego and individuality of people admitted to Saint Andrew's Hospital are often lost or worn away. Part of Lucia's identity is that of a dancer, thus "reasidance." Perhaps "id" in the middle of "reasidance" suggests Lucia's primary impulse is still to dance. Adding the "a" possibly suggests "reason." It is reasonable for Lucia to still desire to dance even confined to this asylum.

"how it olders"
The grounds on the asylum alter with the seasons as Lucia just gets older every year.

"saysongs"
Stories are songs that are simply said. Lucia is singing her song through her Lucy-Lips narration of a day in her life. Previously, we get "olders" as in Lucia is aging but now we get the childish word construction of "saysongs" to suggest she is still young at heart and in her mind, in her songs and stories and joy.

"nava"
In Hebrew, nava means beautiful. It could also be suggestive of navel as we have a sequence at the end of this sentence that possibly suggests from birth to death.

"nava quit the seam firm one die to the nicht."
"Quit the seam" could possibly be mean being birthed? Then you get your life, "firm one day to the next." But you eventually grow weak and "die," eventually becoming nothing ("nicht," not).

"quit the seam"
The words at the end of this sentence just seem like a hodgepodge of changes which could mean almost anything. The "seam" is where two things are knitted together to make a whole. So somebody who has "quit the seam" has had their "whole" sundered. Lucia has left the "reality" outside the iron railings of the Hospital. Her life has been torn asunder and she now lives only in this dubiously real half. Also, her mind has been rent asunder. She has quit the seam of reality.

"firm one die"
This could possibly be that Lucia's mind was firm one day but no longer. Or it could mean the firm along with the infirm will eventually die.

"one die to the nicht."
"One day to the next." "Nicht" not only means "not" in German but is reminiscent of "Nacht," or night. So we get the phrase "one day to the next" as well as "day to night." Also the combination of death and not makes me think of the Biblical phrase, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." This isn't just a phrase about being buried or interred in the ground for eternity; it's a suggestion of the Resurrection as well. This could be a reference to the seasons as an eternal metaphor for death and resurrection. It could also be commentary on Lucia who, having been buried away at Saint Andrew's Hospital, has come back as a new person who is thriving in this world.