French translation help please!

"Il y a des mots entrechoque's, les levres sans visage, se parjurant dans les tenebres: il y a l'air prostitue' au mensonge, et la Voix souillant jusqu'au secret de l'ame" - how would I translate this? Apologies for lack of accents.

Reply 1

Jlx

That's pretty hard...And Quite Meaningless.... Where is it from??

Reply 2

Deutsch_Beth

16

Where are the line breaks? That might help.

Reply 3

SiaSiaSia

16

i'm rubbish at translating, i'm too literal. you might be better waiting for anatheme

anatheme

i'd translate it as:

"Il y a des mots entrechoque's, les levres
sans visage, se parjurant dans les tenebres:
il y a l'air prostitue' il y a l'air prostitue' au mensonge, et la Voix
souillant jusqu'au secret de l'ame"

there are words that clash together*, the lips, without a face,
they break the promise in the darkness,
it is like the prostitute*** of lies, and the voice
staining until to this, the secret of the soul

* bit clumsy, but "clink together" wouldn't have fitted :p:

** i hate translating 'l'air de' :P no idea if that bits right

sorry if the other bits are clumsy, it is late at night and my french is awwwwfulllll

wes could help as well

Reply 4

juanmodesto

IzzyWizzy

"Il y a des mots entrechoque's, les levres sans visage, se parjurant dans les tenebres: il y a l'air prostitue' au mensonge, et la Voix souillant jusqu'au secret de l'ame" - how would I translate this? Apologies for lack of accents.

It doesn't make much sense - maybe it's something like:

There are chattering words
Faceless lips are perjuring themselves in the darkness
As if they are prostituted to the lie
And the voice besmirches the innermost soul.

Reply 5

juanmodesto

IzzyWizzy

And does l'air here literally mean 'air'? It can't be anything like 'seems' or 'appears to be' because there's no 'de' following it......

I think that sounds right. It might mean "the air itself" or "even the air" .. is prostituted...

Reply 6

wes

10

I think you're translating too literally. Here's the full poem : http://www.etudes-litteraires.com/forum/sujet-6138-pierre-emmanuel-honneur-poetes-dents-serrees

It's an Occupation/Zone libre (don't know where he was) poem, which is probably rather important, particularly with regards to "honneur" and "prostitution". Zone libre or Occupé, collaboration is a major theme of the time, and I think this probably has more to do with it than "prostitution" in the most common sense.

Reply 7

bun

19

I not entirely sure, but I imagine it translates as roughly;
"There are words that clash, the lips without a face,
they commit perjury itself in the darkness: they have the air of prostitutes and lie,
and the voice soils the secret of the soul "

Reply 8

Jlx

However It doesn't make sense in french so in english....It's worse...

Reply 9

melody.blanc

being fluent in french myself i had difficulty translating it but i believe its something along the lines of:

There are chattering words,
Lips withouta face are perjuring themselves in the darkness,
Like they are prostituted to the lie
And the voice besmirches the innermost secret's of the soul.

hope that helps :smile:

French translation help please!

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you