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French to English translations [PRO] Wine / Oenology / Viticulture
French term or phrase:derrière les fagots
The context here is a slightly ironic use of the term; a moonshine maker says he has to go out with the innkeeper he's selling his latest batch to in order to 'faire un tour derrière les fagots'.
For me "de derrière le fagots" has a slightly ironical connotation (meant as a joke), but I may be wrong of course. I was surprised a couple of months ago, when I re-read Jacques the Fatalist, finding the expression without the slightest irony : Deux bouteilles, de celles qui sont tout au fond, derrière les fagots. In the english version, the translator went for the word-to-word translation : behind the firewood.
IMO "Derrière les fagots" isn't negative. As jmleger said "it is where the good stuff is kept". I may not be as modern as they get (going on 32) but I don't think I am ancient either ;-).
In modern French the expression "sortir quelque chose de derrière les fagots" has often a slightly negative connotation too : "un vieux machin qu'il nous a sorti de derrière les fagots". So I gess stash would do perfectly well here.
If you think that a sewer's/crafter's/scrapbooker's "stash" is negative, then you do not understand the term. If you think you bothered me, you do not understand me.
previous comments would demostrate that "stash" is devoid of a negative connotation, I am sorry if my opinion bothered you. I enjoy exchanging and discussing different points of view. Cheers!
I did not say "stash" is always a negative term. Sometimes, if the term "can" be interpreted in a negative light, then it carries a certain flavor or connotation...Cheers!
Thanks, Nora. At least for US EN, stash is not always a negative term. Crafters, scrapbookers quilters and sewers, to name a few, have a "stash" - items they bought without having a project planned, but that "caught their eye" or were priced so well they could not pass them up.
The near-literal translation in US EN is "behind the woodshed," which has a VERY different meaning.
is where the good stuff is kept... out of sight. In France, you will talk about opening "une bonne bouteille de derrière les fagots"
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Answers
29 mins confidence:
keep up one's sleeve
Explanation: This is the closest I can come to finding an idiomatic expression in English, but I admit it might be difficult to imagine hiding alcohol up one's sleeve. In any case, the idea is that he is going to look into his own personal stash or reserves, yu would have to turn the sentence around to make this work.
Linda Brunet Local time: 14:33 Works in field Native speaker of: English
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