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Comment by alasano | Hacker News Reader

First time seeing my province on HN. Swearing in Québec feels like an extension of your body and even the most well spoken people give in to the treat that are our swear words. I'm always reminded of this quote from the Matrix trilogy (although relating to French from France).

Merovingian: Yes, of course, who has time? Who has time? But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have time? Chiteau Haut-Brion 1959, magnificent wine, I love French wine, like I love the French language. I have sampled every language, French is my favourite - fantastic language, especially to curse with. Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculis de ta mire. You see, it's like wiping your ass with silk, I love it.

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I'm roughly a quarter French-Canadien and grew up in North-Eastern Ontario near the border. My french education has been a blend of Parisian and Québecois. I remember taking a very enlightening french class at UWaterloo: FR373 History of French-English Bilingualism. My favourite anecdote was of French tourists visiting Québec after it was "rediscovered" by France, and being surprised when their sex-based swears didn't phase the Canadians and similarly the church-based swears didn't bother the French.

Profane Symbiosis, it's the root of our relationship with the french people.

Matrix 2 and 3 could almost have been saved with the twist that The Merovingian was the previous The One who just refused to play along. A criminally wasted opportunity. I loved Matrix 1, I still haven't bothered to watch 3. In fact I can't even remember what happens in 2 after Persephone's bit is over.

So, this is the first time I've had a chance to translate what he was saying for that line, and I could only ever make out fragments of what I thought I understood.

And, if I'm translating (or transliterating) correctly, it's something like:

  In the Name of God, just look at 
  these motherfucking shitty slutty 
  brothel whore assholes.

  0. nom de dieu = name of god
  1. putain      = whore
  2. bordel      = brothel
  3. merde       = shit
  4. saloperies  = sluts
  5. connards    = assholes
  6. enculé      = motherfucker
  7. ta mire     = one's sight

Does that properly capture the spirit of his curse words, or am I not quite getting it right?

Osti que tu l'as pas l'affaire. On s'en sac' de squi veulent dire les mots, l'important c'est d'avoir l'air en criss :)

Well... I tried.

d'enculé de ta mère (*)

I'm also reminded of this nice Wikipedia article (in French) about Captain Haddock's insults: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabulaire_du_capitaine_Haddo...

Apparently those were used to replace actual swear words, that may have been inappropriate for children.

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