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Sun 21 Mar, 2004 02:58 pm
Could you translate the French on the woman's chest into English?
A
I can't help ya oristar....I need a french translation to english myself. BTW ~ Are you sure that's really a woman?
Can anyone tell me what 'Socra Blur' means?
That's sacré bleu, Quinn, and it means "holy blue"--think "holy shit!"
Oristar, i have never seen the word racolage. I'm not an expert, but i am comfortably fluent in French. The verb coller means to glue or to paste together. Perhaps this is idiomatic, or slang. Passif, six mois de prison means "--passive, six months in prison." Perhaps a native speaker would know what "racolage" means, but i'm clueless (and suspicious).
solicitating - 6 months in jail
Solicitating is to approach or accost (a person) with an offer of sexual services. She's obviously a bitter hooker.
Sacre Blue! is an exclamation in french. Like oh my god, or holy crap. It's a play on Sacre Coeur, or Sacred Heart, which like most curses in french are blasphemy based, so you get 'sacred blue'. Unlike english swear which are all about sex.
that's soliciting not solicitating. So your translation should read: Passive solicitation: 6 months in prison.
My spelling sucks, sorry.
The most probable translation, yes, would be 'Passive soliciting: six months in prison.' I took interest in the word 'passif' above all others, and the arrow pointing down towards her nether region. I thought at first that the 'six months' in prison after 'passive' solicitation-- i.e. being raped, the 'soliciting' not being made by her but being read by the man due to post-feminist society today-- were psychological; yet, obviously, the effects would last longer than that. So, the above conjecture was completely pointless, and she's probably a prostitute, not a victim.
Ceili wrote:Sacre Blue! is an exclamation in french. Like oh my god, or holy crap. It's a play on Sacre Coeur, or Sacred Heart, which like most curses in french are blasphemy based, so you get 'sacred blue'. Unlike english swear which are all about sex.
"Sacré bleu" is a substitute for "sacré Dieu" (holy God), not "sacré coeur, in much the same way that "gosh" is a substitute for "God" or "cripes" is a substitue for "Christ" in English. "Bleu" and "Dieu" rhyme, so the inoffensive "blue" is substituted for the profane "God."
If that's so, it's what the French would refer to as a "poor" rhyme, and i'm inclined to agree . . .
'Racolage' is "looking for customers", here: specially used re prostitution.
'Sacre bleu' is similar in every day's use to "Mein Gott" in German, "Mama mia" in Italian ... and used as often :wink:
Setanta wrote:If that's so, it's what the French would refer to as a "poor" rhyme, and i'm inclined to agree . . .
I think the French would regard it as "close enough." From
Cyrano de Bergerac:
CYRANO
Oui, vous m'arrachez tout, le laurier et la rose!
Arrachez! Il y a malgre vous quelque chose
Que j'emporte, et ce soir, quand j'entrerai chez [b]Dieu[/b],
Mon salut balaiera largement le seuil [b]bleu[/b],
Quelque chose que sans un pli, sans une tache,
J'emporte malgre vous,
(Il s'elance l'epee haute)
et c'est. . .
ROXANE
C'est?. . .
CYRANO
Mon panache.
I was referring to the classification of rhymes: a single matching pair of phonemes is described as "poor," two matching phonemes if described as "sufficient," and three or more matching phonemes is described as "rich." In the poem you cite here, all of the rhymes would be classified as "poor" with the exception of tache--panache, in which the poetice pronunciation of the otherwise silent "e" would make them "sufficient."
For another example, Paul Verlaine's Nevermore, which follows:
Souvenir, souvenir, que me veux-tu ? Lautomne
Faisait voler la grive à travers lair atone,
Et le soleil dardait un rayon monotone
Sur le bois jaunissant où la bise détone.
Nous étions seul à seule et marchions en rêvant,
Elle et moi, les cheveux et la pensée au vent.
Soudain, tournant vers moi son regard émouvant :
« Quel fut ton plus beau jour ? » fit sa voix dor vivant,
Sa voix douce et sonore, au frais timbre angélique.
Un sourire discret lui donna la réplique,
Et je baisai sa main blanche, dévotement.
- Ah ! les premières fleurs, quelles sont parfumées !
Et quil bruit avec un murmure charmant
Le premier « oui » qui sort de lèvres bien-aimées !
The first four rhymes are "sufficient," as are the next four, and the two following are also sufficient in that "-lique" in poesie would have the final silent "e" pronounced--but are followed by four "poor" rhymes. Rich rhymes are very difficult to achieve, which is one of the reasons that Corneille and Racine have been so highly regarded by the literary French.
Hey, the French equate heavy perfuming as "close enough" to bathing. I would suggest that explains their rhyme.
I shall be filing this information away under the heading "learn something new every day."
Setanta wrote:I was referring to the classification of rhymes: a single matching pair of phonemes is described as "poor," two matching phonemes if described as "sufficient," and three or more matching phonemes is described as "rich." In the poem you cite here, all of the rhymes would be classified as "poor" with the exception of tache--panache, in which the poetice pronunciation of the otherwise silent "e" would make them "sufficient."
No,
rose and
chose would also be
rimes suffisantes.
For more information on this endlessly fascinating topic, do what I did and check out
RIME ET RICHESSE DES RIMES EN VERSIFICATION FRANÇAISE CLASSIQUE (.pdf file).
Yes, you are correct about rose-chose, given the pronunciation of the otherwise silent "e." I had to learn this for the advanced undergraduate French courses i took while employed at the University of Illinois. My final product was an imitation of La Fontaine, in which, of 54 rhyme pairs, all were sufficient, except for six pairs, which were rich.
I forget which obscurantist wit it was, but i will quote the unknow joker:
Je meur de soif aupres de La Fontaine.
Joe, I've heard it either way, but again, like I said, most french curses are bases on blasphemy while english are mostly about sex.
You can also say "mon Dieu"...in Dutch: "(oh) mijn God!" But in our secular country, people tend to use more ehh powerful words: "k*t", "godverdomme" or a simple "f*ck" - pronounced in Dutch more as "f*k" (how do you mean, Americanized?...) :wink:
Yeah Ceili, I've been wondering about that....when we English say 'f- you' aren't we wishing on someone else something we want ourselves? It doesn't make sense, really. Now 'audit you' seems like a much stronger curse to me.
It's short for "Let Jesus..."
Well, you've seen the Exorcist.
You are right, though, Cav; 'f/ck you' is more of a blessing than a curse. 
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