heures blanches

07:45 May 26, 2010 

dark thoughts in the dead of night?

But to what does "ombres noires" refer to? If he is depressed, it could be "black thoughts", or even Churchill's "Black Dog"

06:00 May 26, 2010 

If this is the same text, then black/white/colour/ etc. is a recurrent theme. Your solution for "heures blanches" should probably retain that theme i.e. include "white" or at least "pale" as Gilla suggests.

15:02 May 25, 2010 

Kashew,

Are there any definite indications that nighttime is involved here? We have writeaway's nice ref. showing that ''les heures blanches'' means 3 or 4 in the morning, and we know the expression ''nuits blanches'' refers to sleepless nights, but ''heures blanches'' might simply mean time that the sculptor spends without being inspired, wasted time. This could be at any time of the day. And the ''ombres noires'' could be metaphorical for his depressed state at not being able to produce anything. I guess you cannot give us any more of the text?

14:29 May 25, 2010 

Whitening shining hours, still cast dark shadows.

14:23 May 25, 2010 

a nice idea! Thanks Gilla.

13:56 May 25, 2010 

"the pale light of dawn casts dark shadows"

12:49 May 25, 2010 

Keep brainstorming: one never knows!

12:36 May 25, 2010 

first light casts dark shadows

12:32 May 25, 2010 

Maybe that would work in your context?

12:26 May 25, 2010 

but the work which is being described is copyright: assuming it is the "nuits blanches" (sleepless nights) idea, is there an English colour-association expression that would team up with dark (black) shadows?
Thanks, Gilla and writeaway.

12:17 May 25, 2010 

is white necessary? I relate it to nuit blanche, and the idea is used for all sorts of things. Could it be blank, something along the lines of "Blank moments cast black shadows"?

12:15 May 25, 2010 

a bit of context would go a long way