The printing info page

[fatwoul]

I would especially like to meet the graphic wits.

I was also amused by "A Note On This Edition" - not only does this decode to A NOTE, but the note is just "B/W".

Thats a pretty flat note if you ask me.

God I crack myself up...

[SSJRakasha]

what the fuck does "les jours s'en vont tu demeures." mean? i happened to wander over to the french portion of the boards and i was utterly over my head in french...i dont speak french...i can barely speak english...and its my first language...i might be able to maul a sentence or two in spanish...but french? no thanks...my brains fried enough as it is...all thanks to MZD...

[hello?]

This page contains the names of people MZD would like to thank "in order of appearance." I'm just thinkin' that maybe they actually appear in the Whalestoe letters somehow. Like something they once said to MZD made its way into a letter, or a secret or a joke they shared... or maybe their names are hidden in code, or maybe the names are all fake, and why didn't he thank them in House of Leaves? Me confusey. [img]images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]

[Agrimorfee]

quote:

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Originally posted by SSJRakasha:
[QB]what the fuck does "les jours s'en vont tu demeures." mean? QB]

---

my limited knowledge of French tells me that the sentence literally starts as "the games are going, you---"

and I have no idea what demeures means.

Sounds like MZD is saying "the game is on, you morons"!

[hello?]

my limited knowledge of how to use AltaVista Babel Fish tells me it means "the days from go away you residences" which, of course, makes no sense in that order.

[zerolous]

quote:

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Originally posted by hello?:
[QB]"the days from go away you residences" QB]

---

the days from...or from

residence...House

go away from...to leave

translated: from House of Leaves

this is just a guess, I have know idea

[hello?]

There was a post on this board a long time ago that translated this, correctly I assume. And I think it claimed that the "for P." actually referred to Patricia Loeb, MZD and Poe's mother.

[Nash]

quote:

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by Andrea1204, posted August 05, 2003
Yeah, I know I'm gonna get metaphorically kicked in the shins for asking this since it's undoubtedly been posted before but the search function (for the fourth day in a row) has been giving me an obnoxious "web site not responding" error message so I apologize for my impatience and its lack of responding...
The Whalestoe Letters has a dedication "for P." which under it has "Les jours s'en vont tu demeures." I have tried to translate it but all I get is this:
The days from go away you residences.
And that doesn't even make sense!

Anybody can help?

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"les jours s'en vont, tu demeures"
I can tell you that there is a sense but it is difficult to explain. It's a poetic turn of phrase. Roughly, it means "time is passing but you always look the same" (or "look as young as before"). Maybe a translation could be "The Days go away, you remain"
It could be inspired by "Le pont Mirabeau" de Guillaume Apollinaire.

Le pont Mirabeau

Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine.

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Les mains dans les mains restons face à face
Tandis que sous
Le pont de nos bras passe
Des éternels regards l'onde si lasse

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente

Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure

Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent
Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine

A possible translation :
The Mirabeau Bridge

Under the Mirabeau bridge flows the Seine
And our loves
Must I remember them
Joy always followed after pain

Let the night fall and the hours ring
The days go away, I remain

Hand in hand let us stay face to face
while underneath
the bridge of our arms passes
the so-slow wave of eternal looks

Let the night fall and the hours ring
The days go away, I remain

Love goes away like this flowing water
Love goes away
How slow life is
How violent hope is

Let the night fall and the hours ring
The days go away, I remain

The days pass and the weeks pass
Neither past time
Nor past loves return
Under the Mirabeau bridge flows the Seine

Another one here.

[le_theope]

Nash, I'm impressed!

[g@rp]

Me too...and you know why [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[salamander18]

Perhaps said elsewhere,

'The days leave you waiting.'

s'en aller=to leave
demeurer=to wait, stop

[heartbreak]

Thanks for bumping this sal.

Interesting that the dedication to The Whalestoe Letters contains a line from a poem by Apollinaire and Z(?) quotes Apollinaire at the beginning of La Feuille.

[salamander18]

Hmm. I need to go back and read La Feuille, but as for Apollinaire being in HoL, I think Calligrames, which uses typographical layout patterns, shifting, and imaging to increase overall effect, is something MZD is inevitably alluding too. Also, the quote in La Feuille is an entire poem from a collection called Le Bestiaire ou cortège dOrphée, the poem itself called "Le Cheval." The poems are based on animal fables and myths; a connection, I think, to the system of myths running through HoL.

In case it hasn't been included elsewhere, here is a translation of the poem:

The Horse

My hard, formal dreams will know just how to ride you,
My destiny in a gold chariot will be your handsome driver,
Who will take for reins, drawn in tight frenzy,
My verses, paragons of all poetry.



Back to the allusion to Apollinaire in The Whalestoe Letters, I think its pretty perfect that the dedication is in Pelafino's "mother tongue," langue maternelle.