Entre Chien et Loup
I learned a new
phrase today. I learned several
variants: “L’heure entre chien et loup” is my favorite.
A literal
translation would be: “the hour between dog and wolf.” The common French usage? It’s a reference to those ambiguous hours we
English call dawn, dusk or twilight. What I love about this term, this phrase, is
that it carries within it so many layers of meaning.
Ya just gotta love
four words strung together that can send you on a crazy mind-bender.
The French linguist
would explain that the term refers to a specific time of day, when the light is
such that one can’t distinguish between a dog or wolf. A Scot may refer to this as the “darking”
hour or “the gloaming.” It doesn’t
surprise me at all that folks who tend to flocks in fog-shrouded valleys and
moors would have a certain reverence for the ambiguous light that complicates
the matter of distinguishing friend from foe - the dog from the wolf.
It’s the ambiguity
that intrigues.
In that hour
between dog and wolf, we can’t know if we’re safe or threatened. We can't be sure if our eyes deceive, if we truly know what we think we know. We’re caught somewhere between comfort (ignorant bliss?) and fear. It’s
good, of course, to be able to distinguish between the two, but...I’ve never
mastered that.
I seem to be
perpetually lost in “L’heure entre chien et loup.”
* * *
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posted by Jonas | 6/11/2012 05:43:00 PM
10 Comments:
What an interesting, meaning packed phrase. No poem about it? If it keeps preying on my mind, I might have to try to write a poem, as you say it suggests so much. Thanks for enlarging my metaphoric vocabulary.
What an interesting, meaning packed phrase. Isn't it, though?
Years ago, I wrote a short piece about the "fog of ambiguity" wherein all conclusions are suspect. My prose wasn't nearly as compelling as simply noting it was the hour between dog and wolf.
This phrase has staying power, June. I've savored it now for two days running.
What a great post, Jonas. Mind-bender indeed. Perfect words to describe it.
I'm glad you loaned the phrase to us- complete with an open-ended series of thoughts on its complexity.
Thanks for this.
Glad you enjoyed it, Mary. Let's face it, a concatenation of words pungent with meaning's gonna rock any writer's soul.
I'm as thrilled as you Ms. Titanium. Apparently, someone's about to publish a finance/investment book with the phrase "between dog and wolf" in the title. Can't say I was all that intrigued by the book, but the phrase grabbed me by the throat.
Ooh, I'm happy to know I still remember some of my French! Around here it's the hour between the dog and the coyote. Dusk is such a mysterious time. But maybe the saying could also capture a time in the lifespan.
In my case, yes, Secret Agent Woman, it's an apt description of where my heart lies..."entre chien et loup."
After reading this, my interpretation of the phrase may have been wrong for a long time.
I've always taken it to mean the lull after which the dogs have gone to bed, but the wolves have yet to come out. Like the quiet time in a pub/bar when the after-work drinkers are going home, but the evening revellers have yet to arrive.
Yours makes sense, so now I need a different term for that. Hmm.
Hello Simon. Your interpretation of the phrase has a logic of its own so I can understand how you came to adopt it. Thanks for dropping by.
Thanks Jonas. I guess both interpretations refer to the same dusky time of night, so it kind of works. I just wish I could remember where I first read it.
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