Another edifying week at work starts again, and as always I am not ready for it.
C'est la vie - at least on this Tacky Music Monday we have the divine (and dearly missed) Régine to help lift the mood...
Mon amour ne fait jamais rien
Mon amour ne dit jamais rien
Car il a un poil dans la main
Mon amour ne boit jamais rien
Mon amour ne peut jamais rien
Car il a un poil dans la main
Il s'endort quand il a des peines
Et dans ses rêves jamais il ne m'emmène
Des heures, des jours et même des semaines
Et moi j'attends, j'attends qu'il me revienne
Which apparently translates as:
My love never does anything
My love never says anything
Because he has a hair in his hand
My love never drinks anything
My love can never do anything
Because he has a hair in his hand
He falls asleep when he is in trouble
And in his dreams he never takes me
Hours, days and even weeks
And I wait, I wait for him to come back to me
Bizarre.
Have a good week, dear reader. Don't get sunstroke!
i found this online: Making Sense of an Odd Expression
ReplyDeleteThough it's unclear as to where the expression originated, it's often attributed to the late 1800s, if not earlier. The reason this expression refers to laziness likely has something to do with manual labor, which was standard at the time. It also requires an exercise in visualization to get the full picture.
Avoir un poil dans la main and its accompanying gesture offer a very precise image of a hand that is so idle there's actually a hair growing out of it. This is assumed to be because a hand that does not work is not subject to the friction that inhibits hair growth on the palm. The biological facts of how rare hair growth is in the palm calls this into question. And yet, we must also remember that this is something French peasants centuries ago may not have understood.
It's also possible that the phrase could be saying that the person is so lazy that he can't be bothered to pluck—or even notice—a hair growing in such a ridiculous place. Other people speculate that a hair is a very personal object which is not to be lost. Therefore, if someone holds something so dear, they cannot possibly open that hand to do any manual labor.
Thank you, Den - that was a fascinating piece of research! Jx
DeleteApologies - I am only just recovering from Monday. We had rain yesterday, thank goodness.
ReplyDeleteSx
We've had occasional drizzle, and only enough to dampen the skin before it evaporated - and there's nothing more forecast for days yet. Devon's drunk it all! Jx
DeleteRégine, tacky ! Never !
ReplyDeleteShe had her moments. This was one of them, I feel... Jx
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