VICTOR HUGO - FRENCH PEOPLE I NEED HELP

[moses (2)]

can any of you wonderful French people help me with a question

In the Victor Hugo poem O gouffre! l’âme plonge et rapporte le doute

ther opening stasnza are

Ô gouffre ! l’âme plonge et rapporte le doute.
Nous entendons sur nous les heures, goutte à goutte,
Tomber comme l’eau sur les plombs ;

can you explain the literal translation of line 2 and 3

what do they mean

what is the meaning of " Tomber comme l’eau sur les plombs" is this a french expression


Mrs Moses needs help on this

[kook]

We hear our hours falling drop by drop like water on pellets / lead roofs?
Where's Kounelaki?? She'll know.

[JackT]

I'm not sure I care for this thread.

[Kounelaki]

I'm not sure I care for this thread.

On s'en fout.

[Kounelaki]

Nous entendons sur nous les heures, goutte à goutte,
Tomber comme l’eau sur les plombs

Think it's something like:

We hear the hours fall upon us, drop by drop,
Like water on the gutters

Literally:
We hear on us the hours, drop by drop,
Fall like water on the gutters

[moses (2)]

Nous entendons sur nous les heures, goutte à goutte,
Tomber comme l’eau sur les plombs

Think it's something like:

We hear the hours fall upon us, drop by drop,
Like water on the gutters

Literally:
We hear on us the hours, drop by drop,
Fall like water on the gutters

merci mille fois à tous

[moses (2)]

I'm not sure I care for this thread.

Jack

this is philosophical shit -- I thought you might like to go deep into the soul

you should read some of these ancient french writers particularly Rabelais -- now if he was writing on this forum he would even make Black Francis blush

[the ghost of guitarplayer]

Rabelais -- now if he was writing on this forum he would even make Black Francis blush

No he wouldn't. For Black Francis is the reincarnation of Rabelais. Can't you see the resemblance?

François Rabelais
1494–1553



Black Francis
?-

[Froggy bunnyman]

Ok for this one : We hear on us the hours, drop by drop

But for the last one I would say that "plomb" meant the 2 metal pieces made of lead (plomb in french) which were used for the weight and counterweight in the old clocks.
But I don't know the english word for this kind of piece, sorry. In french it is "poids" I think ("weight")

So forget about "Fall like water on the gutters" in my opinion...

[Kounelaki]

Petit Robert, "plomb": "gouttière, tuyau de plomb"

Could be the lead rooftops as well.

How would the water get into the clock?

[moses (2)]

Petit Robert, "plomb": "gouttière, tuyau de plomb"

Could be the lead rooftops as well.

How would the water get into the clock?

it could be a water clock ????


thanks for all of your inputs

this is good as my wife said she will use this to show how even native french speakers have a divergence of opinion

we think it is roof as after last nights suggestions we came across a reference to roofs and les plombs in an old French dictionary

[Kounelaki]

we think it is roof as after last nights suggestions we came across a reference to roofs and les plombs in an old French dictionary

Very likely in a 19th-century context.

Is your wife studying French, Moses?

PS I'm not a native speaker.

[Kounelaki]

it could be a water clock ????

Don't think a water clock would have weights.

[moses (2)]

ok some further developments from a wise man in Antibes whom we know

"Les Plombs, prisons destinées à renfermer les criminels d'État, ne sont autre chose que les greniers du palais ducal, et c'est des larges plaques de plomb dont ce palais est recouvert que ces prisons tirent leur nom."

je pensais aux plaques sur les toits, et, comme à Venise où la prison s'appelait Les Plombs, il devait y avoir des toits couverts de plomb à l'époque de V. Hugo.

[Kounelaki]

Sounds plausible

From the Littré dictionary, under plomb:

10°
Terme de plombier. Tout le plomb qu'on met sur les toits et autres endroits de la maison. Poser le plomb. Je vis qu'au péril de sa vie mon petit-fils s'était sauvé par les plombs, qui sont excessivement étroits, GENLIS, Ad. et Théod. t. II, p. 466, dans POUGENS.

...

12°
Les plombs de Venise, la toiture de plomb du palais de Saint-Marc, à Venise, en dessous de laquelle étaient les prisons. Voyez, Milord, si dans cette occurrence votre sollicitude paternelle imaginerait quelque chose pour me préserver d'aller sous les plombs ; ce qui serait finir assez tristement une vie bien malheureuse, J. J. ROUSS. Lett. à Mil. Maréchal, Corresp. t. VI, p. 176, dans POUGENS.