Hi, Claire, if it’s Claire who submitted the extract from Ernaux. Long time no ‘voir’. Here’s the English version, translated by Alison L. Strayer:
All that remained of the flamboyant epic
were the grey and silent ruins of
blockhouses carved into cliffsides, and
heaps of rubble in the towns as far as the
eye could see. Rusty objects, twisted
bedframes loomed out of the debris.
Merchants who had lost their businesses
set up shop in temporary huts along the
edges of the ruins. Shells overlooked by
mine-clearers exploded in the bellies of the
little boys who played with them. The
newspapers warned, Do not touch
munitions! Doctors removed tonsils from
children with delicate throats, who woke
screaming from the ether anaesthesia and
were forced to drink boiling milk. On faded
posters, General de Gaulle, in three-quarter
profile, gazed into the distance from under
his kepi. On Sunday afternoons we played
Ludo and Old Maid.
The frenzy that had followed Liberation
was fading. All that people thought about
was going out, and the world was full of
desires that clamored for immediate
satisfaction. Anything that comprised a
FIRST TIME SINCE THE WAR provoked a
stampede-bananas, fireworks, National
Lottery tickets. Entire neighborhoods, from
elderly ladies propped up by their
daughters to infants in strollers, flocked to
the funfair, the torchlight tattoo, and the
Bouglione circus, where they narrowly
escaped being crushed in the melee. They
took to the road in praying, singing crowds
to welcome the statue of Our Lady of
Boulogne and walk her back the following
day over many kilometers…
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Yes, it was me. We’re studying it this year. I had to comment this extract today for an oral. Interesting to see the translation. Thank you!
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Roger, if you’re willing to expand your scope to include fictional characters, Detective Frank Drebin (The Naked Gun) and Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Pink Panther) are legendary klutzes. I seem to recall our current President also having some Ford-level stumbles both ascending and descending the Air Force One gangway.
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There is also the political satire of Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live, reenacting Ford’s stumbling antics…..
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Brendan and Catalina: I laugh at the fictional klutzes too, but you can’t beat unintentional slapstick. Ford was a riot. In defense of Biden, he’s 80 and looks it. Ford made his pratfalls at age 62.
Hi, Claire, if it’s Claire who submitted the extract from Ernaux. Long time no ‘voir’. Here’s the English version, translated by Alison L. Strayer:
All that remained of the flamboyant epic
were the grey and silent ruins of
blockhouses carved into cliffsides, and
heaps of rubble in the towns as far as the
eye could see. Rusty objects, twisted
bedframes loomed out of the debris.
Merchants who had lost their businesses
set up shop in temporary huts along the
edges of the ruins. Shells overlooked by
mine-clearers exploded in the bellies of the
little boys who played with them. The
newspapers warned, Do not touch
munitions! Doctors removed tonsils from
children with delicate throats, who woke
screaming from the ether anaesthesia and
were forced to drink boiling milk. On faded
posters, General de Gaulle, in three-quarter
profile, gazed into the distance from under
his kepi. On Sunday afternoons we played
Ludo and Old Maid.
The frenzy that had followed Liberation
was fading. All that people thought about
was going out, and the world was full of
desires that clamored for immediate
satisfaction. Anything that comprised a
FIRST TIME SINCE THE WAR provoked a
stampede-bananas, fireworks, National
Lottery tickets. Entire neighborhoods, from
elderly ladies propped up by their
daughters to infants in strollers, flocked to
the funfair, the torchlight tattoo, and the
Bouglione circus, where they narrowly
escaped being crushed in the melee. They
took to the road in praying, singing crowds
to welcome the statue of Our Lady of
Boulogne and walk her back the following
day over many kilometers…
Yes, it was me. We’re studying it this year. I had to comment this extract today for an oral. Interesting to see the translation. Thank you!
Roger, if you’re willing to expand your scope to include fictional characters, Detective Frank Drebin (The Naked Gun) and Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Pink Panther) are legendary klutzes. I seem to recall our current President also having some Ford-level stumbles both ascending and descending the Air Force One gangway.
There is also the political satire of Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live, reenacting Ford’s stumbling antics…..
Brendan and Catalina: I laugh at the fictional klutzes too, but you can’t beat unintentional slapstick. Ford was a riot. In defense of Biden, he’s 80 and looks it. Ford made his pratfalls at age 62.