Shit Translation, French and Spanish speakers help!
October 27, 2010 2:26 AM   Subscribe

Do any French or Spanish speakers have time to look at 30" of footage to tell me what this guy is saying? Shit Tony.

We met a clothes salesman in Varanassi who goes by the name of Shit Tony. He talks briefly about his 'Shit' in French then in Spanish. I'm shit at translation so wondering if anyone could clarify what he's saying. It's for a travel show we're doing and your help is greatly appreciated!
posted by DOUBLE A SIDE to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: The French part:

1. Nous fait les produits... de plein de produits de merde. [We make products... lots of shit products.]

2. C'est les produits de merde. [These are shit products.]

3. C'est le merde de plein de choses. [It's the shit of all kinds of things.]

4. Merde de taureau, de chameau(?), de chien. [Bull shit, camel shit, dog shit.]

Tous les couleurs la merde. [All colours of shit.]
posted by beniamino at 2:50 AM on October 27, 2010


Response by poster: Brilliant! thank-you so much.....will mark this best answer once I get the spanish sorted.
posted by DOUBLE A SIDE at 3:03 AM on October 27, 2010


I think you're right by thinking he's using the word, "plein"- but his usage is still strange - I'm not a French expert, but I've only come across, "plein" in the phrase, "au plein regime" (at full throttle).

And unless it's feminine, you wouldn't pronounce the, "n", it would (very roughly) sound like, "pleh", not, "plehn". "pruduit" is masculine. "merde" is feminine. It's way too late to figure out the COD and all that cal. Tiny, tiny small things. I'm mostly impressed at his being at the very least, trilingual, if only shit trilingual.

Also maybe,

Tous les couleurs la merde.

"Tous" is masculine plural, "couleurs" is feminim plural, so use, "toutes" instead. They're basically spoken the same way, kinda.

Toutes les couleurs la merde.

Unless, "couleurs" is used as an adjective (colorful), then it has to agree with the noun, but it's not - it's used as a noun, here.

And, "la merde" is weird, because that means all the shit in the world, not all the colors of shit. It maybe just,

Toutes les couleurs de merde.

When you listen again, that does sound like what he says, but he screws up, "de" and, "la" in the beginning, where you says he speaks, "la French" - where he actually just speak some french "de".
posted by alex_skazat at 3:14 AM on October 27, 2010


Best answer: (Other dude: you do it in Spanish?)

Si, tambien.
Yes, that too.

(Una) tienda de mierda, ropa de mierda, calzas de mierda, pañuela de mierda...
A shit shop, shit clothes, shit pants, shit handkerchiefs...
posted by zompist at 3:27 AM on October 27, 2010


Best answer: And the Spanish...

5. Sí, también [Yes, that too.]
6. Esta tienda de mierda, ropa de mierda, calzado de mierda, pañuelo* de mierda…
[(This) shit shop, shit clothes, shit shoes, shit handkerchief/scarf...]

*“Pañuelo” can be a handkerchief, a scarf or a headscarf.
posted by lux at 3:27 AM on October 27, 2010


As alex_skazat points out, the French I transcribed above isn't grammatically perfect. I wrote what I heard, including errors. 'Plein de' is a common colloquialism for 'loads of', though he pronounces it more like 'plan de'. And I agree that he meant to say 'Toutes les couleurs de merde' (all colours of shit), though it is a bit mangled (on relisten, though, perhaps he got the 'toutes' right). But it's pretty good for a shit stuff seller.
posted by beniamino at 3:27 AM on October 27, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks everyone, I can now go happily about my day. No problems with the translation being 100% especially if he is making mistakes, just as long as I keep the intention of what he's saying.
posted by DOUBLE A SIDE at 3:52 AM on October 27, 2010


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