Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Panda's Pee Spot

Every night, Panda and I walk to a certain patch of grass so she can evacuate before bedtime. It's a five-minute walk, and most nights it's a walk I'd rather not be taking. (Exceptions include after a really big meal, when it's good to walk off the fullness.) But when we arrive at our destination, we see something that never fails to cheer me up.

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Rien ne sert de rien, cependant tout arrive . . .  Nothing is useless, rather everything has its place.

This line comes from a Georges Perec novel called La Vie mode d' emploi (Life: A User's Manual), published in 1978. My translation is terrible (especially the second part), but I generally take it to express some kind of irrepressible optimism, which appeals to me.

So tonight - in fact right now - when I take Panda on her walk, I'll remember that I have something to look forward to. Rien ne sert de rien, cependant tout arrive. Nice.
Posted by Louis at 1:42 PM
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2 comments:

  1. Mo de BellevilleFebruary 10, 2010 at 3:07 PM

    hé hé. Indeed your translation is terrible. To be honest it's very hard to understand even in french. This phrase is more poetic than truly correct / logic. The meaning could be "tout ce que nous pourrons faire ne servira à rien, ce qui doit arriver arrivera" (Everything we do is useless, what has to happen happens". But you're right about the general sense. it's rather optimistic. Darth vader would just say "THIS IS YOUR DESTINY".... :)

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  2. LouisFebruary 11, 2010 at 9:47 AM

    Thanks for the translation attempt, Mo! We can keep working on this, and get back to everyone. Or we could just stick with the translation à la Darth Vader :)

    Anyone else wanna take a stab?

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