(small) French translation request

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Sep 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Macavity	16 Sep 2004
As a card "meaning" for a Marseille-like deck, I came across the phrase: "Ne pas jeter le manche après la cognée". Hmmm... sleeves? hatchets? But, as a wild guess, I wondered about: "Throwing the baby out with the bathwater" }) Such things seem to be rather language-specific... Macavity

Fulgour	16 Sep 2004
Il ne faut jamais jeter le manche après la cognée. (One should never throw the handle after the felling axe.) "Never say die!" *

Fulgour	16 Sep 2004
I'm not conversant at all here, so this was as close as I could get. The "Ne pas" beginning might make an altogether different something something... French Language Proverbs by About the French Language

Diana	16 Sep 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Fulgour "Never say die!" That sounds pretty good, Fulgour! It means indeed: "Don't give up so easily." Macavity: la manche (feminine) means sleeve. But when it's masculine, le manche, it's a handle. A cognée is an ax, or more exactly a felling ax. The more common word for ax would be "hache". Concerning the language specific thing, in English, we say "A cat may look at a king." (From Alice in Wonderland, I do believe). But in French, we say: A dog may look at an archbishop. })

Fulgour	16 Sep 2004
On my father's side, we're Catholics from back around Alsace Lorraine, and there's an Austrian grandmother. They found brighter prospects in agricultural Wisconsin, back in the 1870s. Ah, but on my mother's side I'm Irish, and so now you have me wondering: Il ne faut jamais jeter le manche après la cognée. Are we talking straightforward determination in the boardroom or the bedroom...?

Macavity	16 Sep 2004
Impressed. Sounds about right to me... and fits in rather neatly. Thanks Both. :) For completion's sake, the meaning was from the Moon card from, the Arista deck. Dated 1964, this must become almost a "historic" Tarot itself? Checkout the pictures too. A nice delicate touch in those B/W images. And, for those who fancy a change from similar (English language) ideas based on RWS... ;) XVIII La Lune Noire (sic!) Keywords: Le Crepuscule/Deception; Lune - Cancer &c. Dans La vie: Le pressentiment est a considerer seriusement. L'erreur precede la verite, fille de la reflexion d'abord desabusee. Lenteur Dans l'immediat: Travailler sans relache, ne pas jeter le manche apres la cognee. Enregistrer l'echec avec serenite, le success de meme. And more for reversals... Macavity <-- too lazy to include accents. })

sarahbellum	17 Sep 2004
I think the general idea is: don't drop the ax as soon as you've made the first cut, i.e. keep going till you get where you need to be. Just because you have gotten a little bit of a good result, don't be satisfied--if you stop now, you may miss out on something even better.

The (small) French translation request thread was originally posted on 16 Sep 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.