fumées rases

English translation: low-lying/knee-deep haze

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	fumées rases
English translation:	low-lying/knee-deep haze
Entered by:	Clare Hogg

12:00 Apr 21, 2011

French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / sculpture

French term or phrase: fumées rases

I am (still!!) translating a high-brow, poetic/dreamlike and very fanciful (i.e. incomprehensible!) text about a sculptor (XXXX) from the preface of a catalogue containing pictures of his work.

I´m struggling to come with a meaningful yet poetic translation of the expression, "fumées rases" in the below paragraph. Any suggestions MUCH APPRECIATED!! Thanks in advance for your time!

"L'art moderne s'est empli en Occident de ces faces aveugles du songe que les peuples d'ailleurs portaient en eux, il a refleté ces lumieres eclatées qui aujourd'hui nous donnent à voir le monde. XXXX est au confluent. La rencontre d'un tel mouvement des formes et d'une telle passion d'existence l'a elu a une de ces croisées, marquées de l'invisible, que dans les profonds de Guadeloupe on appelle tout simplement, d'une expression litterale et mysterieuse, un quatre-chemins. La terre rouge borde d'epaisses coulées de cannes, sa trace est laminée avec une egale droiture par les charrettes à zebus et les camions diesel. La chaleur y plante **ses fumées rases**, que nos zombis frequentent. Les bronzes de XXXX s'y nouent, pour nous indiquer une inouie direction."

Clare Hogg KudoZ activity Questions: 154 (6 open) (1 without valid answers) (11 closed without grading) Answers: 62 Spain
Local time: 20:39

low-lying haze

Explanation:
I tried to visualise the scene the writer is conjuring up: I'm seeing (feeling?) tropical muggy heat, it's so hot that the ground is almost steaming...and the closest I can get to describing it right now would be:
"Our zombies stumble through the low-lying haze of heat"

I don't think I'm very correct from a physics point of view (steaming and haze caused by different heat phenomena??), but poetic licence can apply here I reckon...; )

An idea to get the ball rolling anyway...

Selected response from:

Philippa Smith
Local time: 20:39

Grading comment

Thank you for this great suggestion Philippa.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +5

low-lying haze

Philippa Smith

3 +2

knee-deep mist

Stephanie Mitchel

3 +1

shimmering heat

Bourth (X)

ground-level smoke

silvester55

earthy fumes

Jocelyne Cuenin

Answers

30 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

low-lying haze

Philippa Smith
Local time: 20:39
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 48

Grading comment

Thank you for this great suggestion Philippa.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

ormiston: haze is poetic yet nicely vague. Doubt it's diesel fumes (to me 'ses' = 'chaleur') or smoke or mist

42 mins

-> Thanks Ormiston - yes, haze came to me after much head scratching and I jumped on it...

agree

Evans (X): Coincidentally, we had a household discussion about what 'haze' actually is only last night, when contemplating the disappearance of the horizon. I think it works here.

46 mins

-> Thanks Gilla - sounds like synchronicity!

agree

B D Finch

1 hr

-> Thanks Barbara!

agree

silvester55: this is definitely poetic , unlike my suggestion !!!

3 hrs

-> Thanks - I guess I was having a poetic day!

agree

Clive Phillips: Maybe even something like "drifts of shimmering haze".

5 hrs

-> Thanks - yes, that's very pretty...: )

24 mins confidence:

ground-level smoke

Explanation:
I don't have poetic skills ,hope this fits .
Just an idea .

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 32 mins (2011-04-21 12:32:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I thought of " steam" or " vapours" ( more poetic), but since it's mentionning diesel trucks , it surely is smoke

silvester55
Local time: 21:39
Native speaker of:

French

43 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

knee-deep mist

Explanation:
With apologies to Rudyard Kipling, who just popped up when I Googled my guess:

"Beneath the moonlight, filled with sluggish mist
Knee-deep, so that men waded as they walked."
- from The Sacrifice of Er-Heb

Perhaps you could change the sentence around so the 'zombies' are wading and not just 'frequenting'...

Bon courage !

Stephanie Mitchel
United States
Local time: 14:39
Native speaker of: English

2 hrs confidence:

earthy fumes

Explanation:
Je me lance. Il y a peut-être l'idée des fumées au ras du sol (low-lying) à l'opposé des fumées de la Soufrière, le volcan en activité de la Guadeloupe (émanations /fume = emit a cloud of fine particles;)

Je choisis earthy au lieu de low-lying pour essayer d'être poétique :-)

Donc ici, entre autres, odeurs et vapeurs de diesel (cf petrol fumes) ...
Mais aussi les associations avec le zombie qui peut être réveillé de la "mort" par la fumée de certaines plantes
http://www.potomitan.info/ayiti/rene/zombification.php

Et puis, je peux laisser courir mon imagination. On l'imagine pas vraiment très gentil, le zombie (e.g. fuming with rage, raving) -

......to fume = be wet with sweat or blood, as of one's face (thefreedictionary) !!!!

ENVIRONNEMENT. La Guadeloupe sous un linceul de cendres - Info ...12 févr. 2010 ... La dernière explosion notable ressentie en Guadeloupe a eu lieu le 18 septembre 1996, à 1h du matin. Là également, un énorme nuage de fumée ...

Example sentence(s):

When air ... full of vapours and earthy fumes

Reference: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1O_PX2wVD0sC&pg=PA178&lpg...

Jocelyne Cuenin
Germany
Local time: 20:39
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in category: 4

9 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

shimmering heat

Explanation:
Certainly not a lot of examples of this expression, though there is one for barbecue smoke, the sort of thing you get on a still day:

Une foule compacte s'étend sur la grève, investit les pelouses, dans la fumée rase de douzaines de barbecues allumés, qui répandent des fumets âcres

But I rather doubt it's actually smoke. The expression makes me think of that shimmering heat you get at ground level on hot days, where you can "see" the air, the sort of thing that probably produces mirages.

I don't know enough about zombies to see any connection between them and this phenomenon though!

Bourth (X)
Local time: 20:39
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 110

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fumées rases

English translation: low-lying/knee-deep haze

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