Metal, Bois, Fer - Meet my Belle-soeur! + Bilingual side-by-side text (new!)
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
Mirrors and coffee tables and a paravent, or screen, made by my belle-soeur, who is a welder, and artisan, and un amour. Read on.
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TODAY'S WORD: le fer
: iron
le chemin de fer = railroad
le fer à repasser = iron (for shirts, slacks, etc)
le bras de fer = the game of arm-wrestling
le fer à cheval = horseshoe
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EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Soundfile: Listen to Jean-Marc read this French sentence
Fer. Aujourd'hui je vous présente ma soeur, un artisan qui travaille le bois et le fer.
Iron. Today I'd like to introduce you to my sister, a craftsperson who works with wood and iron.
Improve your spoken French with Pronounce it Perfectly in French or Exercises in French Phonetics
A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE
I was wondering about how best to introduce my belle-soeur, Cécile, when a page on her website caught my eye. Clicking on it, I found a poem she wrote in place of a biography.
I took a short cut and included Google's translation of Cécile's poem. I happen to like its rough-around-the-edgesness which adds another layer of soul to the poem. The translation is clunky and not always fitting--like the wooden and metal rejects my belle-soeur rescues. So I am giving you an assignment today: find a more precise word each time you see one that just doesn't cut it and share it in the comments (link at the end of this post). Together with Cécile we will all be artisans today: word artisans and artisans tout court.
This is only an introduction. If you would like me to share more of Cécile and her work, be sure to say so in the comments.
Note: It took time to figure out how to put in the following two-column table into this post, but it could be a helpful way to present bilingual text in the future. What do you think? I hope it shows up intact in your email (let me know in the comments at the end of post).
"BIOGRAPHIE" / "BIOGRAPHY"
Fouiller les bennes,
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Digging the skips,
Unravel tons of steel
Regurgitated by industry.
There is the eye that seeks,
Who arises, who dictates by hand
To take: there.
To extract a fragment from the cluster.
The dust, the caress,
Feel it with your fingertips.
Extract from the entangled pile
Non-conforming parts, out of use.
There is grain and fiber
Tones that decline.
There is the odor that accompanies
The hand that caresses or hesitates.
Under the bark the patina that hatches.
The movement heats the matter,
He offers a shine.
The wood breathes.
The workshop is a lung
Who shelters and gives the lodging.
There are dirty hands that know,
Feel, touch, embrace,
Or cut but tame.
Fusion of genres and materials.
Alloy of wood and metals.
Intimacy is under construction.
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FRENCH VOCABULARY
le fer = iron
la belle-soeur = sister-in-law
un paravent = a screen
un amour = a love
tout court = period, plain, simply
Stories you may have missed:
A story about my frangine, or sister-in-law, a French Robinhood
AMAZON GIFT CARDS - for that hard-to-buy-for one on your list!
FRENCH GOURMET ITEMS - including herbs, mustard, coffee, tisane, chocolate, cakes
FRENCH KNIT REUSABLE ECO SHOPPING BAG - made and knit in France!
PARIS METRO CUFF - Unique bracelet and great gift for those who love Paris. Click here.
THE FRENCH LOVE THESE TOWELS - quick drying, good-looking
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For more online reading: The Lost Gardens: A Story of Two Vineyards and a Sobriety