The Quebec pilgrims French poem

[Kathy and Phil Dahl-Bredine]

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rosina Lila 
  To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU 
  Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 12:05 PM
  Subject: The Quebec pilgrims French poem


  Hello you all,
  A pilgrim from Canada who is a linguist (her written Spanish is to die for) has provided an explanation for lines 8 & 9 of the poem written by the Quebec pilgrims and published in the October Compostela.
  The Lines read:
  "A force d'user mes chaussures
  j'userai mes habitudes"
  (which I mistranslated as "through the use of my shoes I shall use my ways of life"
  Johanne writes that "user" , in the context of the poem, does not mean "to use" but rather it means "to wear out". This renders the meaning of the two lines to be: "While I wear out my shoes, or, By wearing out my shoes, I'll be wearing out [getting rid of) my old habits".
  She also informs that the word "demarche" in the poem's  11th line ("et ma marche sera demarche") has really no equivalent either in English or in Spanish, and that, for the purpose, translating the line as "And my walk will be a beginning" is  good enough.
  With these clarifications the poem becomes ever more beautiful and poignant.
  Hopefully someone in this list will give us all a (complete) better translation.
  Regards.
  Rosina 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.oakapple.net/pipermail/gocamino/attachments/20040209/e8c06e28/attachment.htm