Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
la paillasse à l’air
English translation:
paillasse seems to mean \"abdomen\"
Added to glossary by
Rebecca Elliott
Mar 4, 2010 10:59
14 yrs ago
French term
United Kingdom
la paillasse à l’air
French to English
Other
Military / Defense
This is from a soldier's account of what he saw on the frontline in the First World War. Does this mean something along the lines of "done in"? I'm looking for something a bit more sensitive than that though.
Par milliers, de jeunes poilus, « la paillasse à l’air », agonisent dans la boue.
Thank you
Par milliers, de jeunes poilus, « la paillasse à l’air », agonisent dans la boue.
Thank you
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +7 | paillasse seems to mean "abdomen" |
polyglot45
|
| 2 | it means they were laying on straw mattresses placed |
Albert Golub
|
Proposed translations
+7
36 mins
polyglot45
Native in French
&
English
Native in: English 
, French
Works in: English to French, French to English, German to French, and 4 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
Selected
paillasse seems to mean "abdomen"
http://dictionnaire.sensagent.com/paillasse/fr-fr/
He saw thousands of young soldiers lying in the mud, with their guts hanging out, slowly dying an agonising death
(it literally says "abdomens exposed to the air" but I suspect he means torn open ....hanging out...
cf. expression "crever la paillasse" - slughter someone, etc.
http://traduction.sensagent.com/crever la paillasse/fr-en/
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Note added at 37 mins (2010-03-04 11:37:05 GMT)
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slaughter should have an "a"
Also if you know anything about WWW 1 you will know that brutal scenes of this sort were commonplace
He saw thousands of young soldiers lying in the mud, with their guts hanging out, slowly dying an agonising death
(it literally says "abdomens exposed to the air" but I suspect he means torn open ....hanging out...
cf. expression "crever la paillasse" - slughter someone, etc.
http://traduction.sensagent.com/crever la paillasse/fr-en/
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 37 mins (2010-03-04 11:37:05 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
slaughter should have an "a"
Also if you know anything about WWW 1 you will know that brutal scenes of this sort were commonplace
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you"
43 mins
it means they were laying on straw mattresses placed
on the ground of the trench
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