OT Childhood books you still own and read.

... or to have read _A Year in the Merde_.

D.
--
des
French Biking Vocabulary: http://minilien.fr/a0kg0p

'Kaiser: "Can you prove to me the existence of G-d?"
Bismarck: "The Jews, your Majesty. The Jews"'

 

I've mentioned this phenomenon before: it's called 'calquer' in French.

It was a sort of 'in-joke' in our year at the IUFM to have conversations
in 'calque', i.e. take entire phrases and translate them wor-for-word into
English. So 'is it that I can you take in photo?', or stuff like that, not
forgetting 'of nothing', or 'there is not of what' at the end.

Juvenile, but fun.

D.
--
des
French Biking Vocabulary: http://minilien.fr/a0kg0p

'Kaiser: "Can you prove to me the existence of G-d?"
Bismarck: "The Jews, your Majesty. The Jews"'

 

"Charlie" wrote:
"Merci, Monsieur. Vous etes un tres bon oeuf." [Accents

We used to do this with the French side of our family which was always
good forbemused looks and much Gallic confusion. Somehow it didn't
work as well putting French sayings and so on into English when they
cottoned on. I read recently that Rudyard Kipling and his family
used to play this game as well.

 

My cultural and literary pedigree is in no doubt.

D.
--
des
French Biking Vocabulary: http://minilien.fr/a0kg0p

'Kaiser: "Can you prove to me the existence of G-d?"
Bismarck: "The Jews, your Majesty. The Jews"'

 

I think you're prolly right, still, funny stuff... I loved the detail
in some of the panoramic frames...

 

Great album. Camel are a vastly under-rated group - even if they did
advertise ciggies..

Phil.

 

Truely wonderful. Until one of the pair died and they were not quite
the same..

And as funny in Italian (according to my Dad) as they are in English.

Phil.

 

A friend of mine could never understand why the French would say "In
Winter" when getting ready to leave somewhere. "On y va" v "En hiver"

 

Heh. I've still got a copy of "Sky, My husband" knocking about
somewhere.

 

I'll dig it out. Who is visiting who next?

 

Not heard of it, and I'm crap at these transliteration things. What's
it supposed to mean? I can come up with "Ciel, mon Mari" or similar
but nothing where I can see a double meaning.

Or am I completely barking up the wrong Arbre?

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No, no, you're pretty much on the mark. It's a small book [1] which
goes about showing literal translations between French and English.
Some of it is quite amusing. The author has also written another book
called "Sky, my wife" [2] which I've not had chance to get my hands on
yet.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Husband-Ciel-Mon-Mari/dp/2020094851
[2]
http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Wife-Ciel-Femme-Dictionnaire/dp/2020523663/ref
=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198165293&sr=1-1

 

But could you perhaps explain it please?

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I've got "Kemlo and the Zones of Silence" my intro to SF and bloody
awful on a re-read

 

It's not so much the meaning but the way the translation turns out.

e.g. In English, we'd say, "Heavens, my husband" but in French, "Ciel,
mon mari". The problem is that when you translate the French into
English, it's "Sky, my husband".

Ah, found the book.

A couple of other examples of literal translations:

"Passer l'arme à gauche"
Lit: To pass the weapon to the left
Real: To kick the bucket

"Avoir du chien"
Lit: To have dog
Real: To be sexy

"C'est son chou-chou"
Lit: He's her cabbage-cabbage
Real: He's her pet

Some of it is funny, some not. It's still interesting to see how
translations sometimes work out.

One of the books I read recently had me stumped for a while. The phrase
used was "J'ai fait la traversée du désert". Literally it means "I went
across the desert" which really didn't fit in with the context of the
chapter. Actually it means "I've not had sex for a long time".

 

eh? you can translate it as heavens if you want.

i like the idioms about whipping cats:

y a pas de quoi fouetter un chat = it's not serious
d'autres chats `a fouetter = other things to worry about

 

There's a kraut equivalent too, called "english for runaways"

 

OIC. I didn't get the back-translation, I guess.

<Makes note>
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\`\ | /`/ DS#8 BOTAFOT#3 SbS#2 UKRMMA#13 DFV#8 SKA#2 IBB#10
`\\ | //'
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In uk.rec.motorcycles, you wibbled:

I thought that would be "Paradis" but you're right (I've just checked
Larousse").

Anyway the author of the book wouldn't have sold as many copies, had he called
it "Heavens, my husband".

Heh.