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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Could you exclain "tan" in this quote: "Sèl bagay m sonje, jou sa a, figi tan an te oun tijan fennen." From pg 1 of "Epi oun jou konsa tèt Pastè Bab pati,"

tan, here, means weather as you probably know.
The first sentence is poetic almost:

sèl    | bagay | m  |  sonje       | jou    |  sa   |  a
only  | thing   | i    | remember | day   | that  | the
The only thing I remember on that day

figi   |  tan         | a    |       te        | oun  |  ti-jan     | fennen
face |  weather |  the | past tense |  a     |  little bit  |  faded
The face of the weather was a little bit faded

The only thing I remember, on that day, the weather was a little bit murky / gloomy.

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2 comments:

  1. :) I was confused by "face of the weather," but now it is obvious. The next sentence:

    "Oun ti farinay lapli te koumanse tonbe, fèmen bèk lapousyè fè granchire nan tè."

    (Which I also do not completely understand, "A sprinkle of rain had begun to fall, pecking dust showing off in the ground"?)

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    Replies
    1. you pretty much got it :)

      bèk is used as a noun: beak, mouth
      granchire is someone who's living large, showing off, sparing no expense so that people can see that they are rich. I am thinking if the rain is making "granchire", that means it's probably being very generous, abundant, and "showing off" on the ground just as you have it...
      "A sprinkle of rain had begun to fall, closing the trap/beak of the dust, and bathing the earth generously (or without reserve). ...something like that...

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