salut d'épaule

13:59 May 29, 2013 

I've now got to the end and part of the story line seems to be that Ariadne was not only testing Theseus but preparing herself for her afterlife with the god Dionysus. It's a pretty light piece (apologies Gaston), written on holidays - I wouldn't over-interpret it myself.

13:54 May 29, 2013 

I may be over-reading this, but the idea between Ariadne's thread was also to make sure there was no deviation from the straight line, sticking to the objective with a view to obtaining a certain result. There is the idea that when you are left and right, that you are all over the show, thus not sticking to the straight line, not adhering to the right strategy, indeed, not to any strategy at all.

22:11 May 28, 2013 

that's helpful. Now I can also find my way out of this maze :)

22:02 May 28, 2013 

The background is that Fraignau invited Yourcenar and Baissette to holiday in Greece in 1932. They had a common interest in Classical Greece (had written Les Voyageurs Transformés, Pindare and Hippocrate respectively prior to that). They played a writer's game there where each independently wrote a piece about the Theseus legend during the holiday - that tri-partite piece was published as "Triptyque" by Cahiers du Sud in 1939.

I don't read Baissette's piece as political, more a light comedy. Much of the point (insofar as there is one) seems to be the ineptness of heroes. After 7 days, Ariadne eventually sends out a slave who retrieves Theseus and the other sacrifical victims within an hour.

Yourcenar's section is "Ariane et l'aventurier" which eventually was re-written to become "Qui n'a pas son Minotaure?" and the latter was somewhat informed by the war.

21:37 May 28, 2013 

D, maybe I'm being a bit dense, but I'm still not sure of the overall context. It's a take on the Theseus legend. OK. Then you say he's been told to keep to the right, but actually the left is also fine, so it seems he'll actually end up hopelessly lost...plus "he's none too sure which is his right and which is his left". Is this a piece of satire or a comic story? What is the overall gist of the text, and how closely does it resemble the Greek legend?

A cursory look at Baissette on Wikipedia reveals he had Communist leanings. Could the "keep left/right" then refer to political ideologies? Might the whole thing be a political allegory?

20:53 May 28, 2013 

Sorry!!! It was so obvious to me that I was working with the Theseus legend that I didn't tell anyone. I hate it when people do that. Anyway, for my sins, I had naan bread and a piece of melon (no Boeuf nor Crevettes here)

20:47 May 28, 2013 

The info about the time setting is helpful. I was going to ask the question as the fusil/épaule this seemed to be out of synch on the time-line. It makes all the more sense now.
You need something about the guy erring from one side to another. You'll find something to fit in with the style you have been using for the rest of your piece. I think we have more or less reached a consensus. Actually feeling quite dumb that I didn't pick up on the Ariadne earlier. Guess I lost the thread somewhere along the line (ha ha), no doubt when preparing the Boeuf and Crevettes Saté earlier on this evening!

20:39 May 28, 2013 

Yes, that's the Theseus legend. The story I'm working with has some variations on in - Ariadne leads him to the Minotaur, leaves and tells Theseus to follow the right-hand wall to get out. But he's none too sure which is his right and which his left - well he's a man after all :-)

19:08 May 28, 2013 

I think Nikki is on the right track. Forget shoulders.

19:03 May 28, 2013 

Sorry for the confusion. It's a French 1930's story by Baissette, who was interested in Classical Greece, about the Minotaur. In it, Ariadne tells Theseus to keep to the right. To me, that's the "right-hand rule" algorithm (but I don't translate as such of course). The story seems to have it as a 3-D maze (although that's not critical) so even the Pledge algorithm might not have worked.

18:56 May 28, 2013 

I'm a bit confused...is the extract referring to the Greek legend, or something else? Ariadne gave Theseus a thread to find his way out the maze, but you mention an algorithm, which refers to Ariadne's Thread in logic...When was this text written; is it an original French text, or a translation from Greek/Latin; and what is it about, in general?

17:54 May 28, 2013 

Yes, left-right is the key issue. Ariadne has given him a maze-following algorithm which works for simply-connected mazes but, as he is discovering to his cost, fails miserably for one with "islands". They've been walking for the last week so the more traditional thread wouldn't have worked either. It's not easy being either a hero or his moll!

17:48 May 28, 2013 

You could forget the shoulder thing and shift the emphasis to the right/left element. There are quite a lot of expressions with left/right. Let me get back to the search engines... broom, broom!

17:24 May 28, 2013 

Thanks guys. Fresh minds are wonderful!

17:12 May 28, 2013 

So we need a synonymous expression we can play around with a bit... let's get searching!!!

17:08 May 28, 2013 

absolutely Nikki, this is a calque on that expression

17:06 May 28, 2013 

I keep having the expression "changer son fusil d'épaule" come to mind here. Might it not be a play on that expression, although a might anachronistic here, but perhaps deliberately. The expression means to change one's mind. Now, how to keep that idea, in English, whilst retaining the context.

17:04 May 28, 2013 

Just as one might say « changeait son épée de main », I think you need to look at this as 'changed his salvation to the other shoulder' — maybe that will help you to find a way to express that in EN?