iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Speak French? I'd Rather Die! ~ |
An ironically humorous (doesn't all graveyard humour have to be qualified?) memorial from the Montmartre cemetery.
'Mourir? Plutôt crever!' translates roughly as 'Die? I'd rather kick the bucket!' or 'End my days? I'd rather die!' with 'crever' being French slang for 'die''.
And i feel a bit like 'creving' right now as i squeeze this posting in between packing boxes number 36 and 37 for The Move to a bit south of Paris; longer journey, nicer place, you know the deal.
Anyway, 'for the anecdote' as the French would say, i was contemplating this inscription, trying to make out that last word in the funny French handwriting, and i finally reckoned i'd got it.
Then a lady and her kid came to see what i was photographing, and she squinted at it a bit and replied 'Mourir? Plutôt Crever!'
Up pops my clever-dick head and i gently correct the woman a little too smugly: 'C'est "Mourir? Plutôt rêver!" (Die? I'd rather dream!) je crois,' i smile, and turn back to my camera.
She also smiled slightly, if somewhat quizzically, but said nothing and walked on. A bit uneasy, i had another look at the words and on closer inspection decided that it did indeed say 'Mourir? Plutôt CREVER!'
i spotted an empty nearby grave and discretely jumped in, covering myself with leaves and wondering if i would ever learn to keep my big mouth shut when it really mattered.
(A Paris iPhone street photograph by Sab Will for the 'Paris and I' photo blog)
2 comments:
Tricky one. Very difficult to read it from the curlicued handwriting. Job for a graphologist. :)
Thanks for that vote of confidence, Nodamn - appreciate it! :-S
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