Poem: "Dépaysement"
Jan. 21st, 2020 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came from iamnotgod requesting a square in my 12-31-18 card for the Untranslatable Words Bingo Fest. It has been sponsored by lone_cat. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
Dépaysement (French): The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country; being a foreigner
"Dépaysement"
[2014]
Savoir Faire moves through the world
with a dancer's grace and a Frenchman's wit.
There is always a crisis calling to him,
another day needing to be saved.
People tell him to slow down,
take a break for once, but
he can't slow down.
When he slows down,
people get to know him,
and the better they know him,
the less they seem to like him.
Savoir Faire doesn't know why
that keeps happening, but
it does, and it hurts.
He has swashbuckled
his way across France and
moved on to Italy, Germany,
Britannia, America, and Canada.
He loves France -- he will always
be French -- but he can't stay there.
He doesn't dare wear out his welcome.
So Savoir Faire travels the world,
sweeping into and then out of the scene
as gracefully as possible. It's better this way.
He knows the feeling that comes from
not being in one’s home country,
from being a foreigner.
He learns to breathe
through the pain and
smile through the tears and
give everyone a good time.
If Savoir Faire takes a little extra care
with the refugees, no one asks him why.
After all, that's just what heroes do.
* * *
Notes:
Savoir Faire (Savvy) -- Renaud Cœur is a handsome Frenchman with fair skin, shoulder-length straight brown hair, and blue eyes. He is a professional dancer with a lean fit body, not very tall. His soup friends often call him Savvy.
Origin: Act of derring-do: When a theatre caught fire during a performance, Renaud leaped into action to save members of the audience, swinging on ropes and jumping over flames. The ghost of the theatre's founder then appeared to him and bestowed superpowers.
Uniform: All black, close-fitting clothes with a dapper black coat; floppy black hat with a blue, a white, and a red ostrich plume pinned on by a gold fleur-de-lys. Standard weapons are rapier, dagger, and pistol. Savvy paints his face with stylized makeup instead of wearing a mask.
Qualities: Master (+6) Dancer, Expert (+4) Jack-of-All-Trades, Good (+2) Confidence, Good (+2) Romance.
Poor (-2) Oh, Him Again (people are often dazzled by him at first, but the more they know him, the less they like him)
Powers: Good (+2) Swashbuckling, Good (+2) Wits, Average (0) Agility, Average (0) Speed.
Vulnerability: Average (0) Sacre Bleu, Can't You See I'm French?! (avid Francophone, avid countryman; but the French flag's colors are the same as America's so that confuses people, which really pisses him off)
Motivation: Rush in to save the day.
* * *
Loneliness comes in various flavors, and it can kill people. There are ways to cope with loneliness. Know how to help a lonely friend.
Isolation, rejection, and ostracism are miserable and dangerous. Learn how to fight isolation, overcome rejection, and deal with ostracism.
iamnotgod requesting a square in my 12-31-18 card for the Untranslatable Words Bingo Fest. It has been sponsored by lone_cat. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.Dépaysement (French): The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country; being a foreigner
"Dépaysement"
[2014]
Savoir Faire moves through the world
with a dancer's grace and a Frenchman's wit.
There is always a crisis calling to him,
another day needing to be saved.
People tell him to slow down,
take a break for once, but
he can't slow down.
When he slows down,
people get to know him,
and the better they know him,
the less they seem to like him.
Savoir Faire doesn't know why
that keeps happening, but
it does, and it hurts.
He has swashbuckled
his way across France and
moved on to Italy, Germany,
Britannia, America, and Canada.
He loves France -- he will always
be French -- but he can't stay there.
He doesn't dare wear out his welcome.
So Savoir Faire travels the world,
sweeping into and then out of the scene
as gracefully as possible. It's better this way.
He knows the feeling that comes from
not being in one’s home country,
from being a foreigner.
He learns to breathe
through the pain and
smile through the tears and
give everyone a good time.
If Savoir Faire takes a little extra care
with the refugees, no one asks him why.
After all, that's just what heroes do.
* * *
Notes:
Savoir Faire (Savvy) -- Renaud Cœur is a handsome Frenchman with fair skin, shoulder-length straight brown hair, and blue eyes. He is a professional dancer with a lean fit body, not very tall. His soup friends often call him Savvy.
Origin: Act of derring-do: When a theatre caught fire during a performance, Renaud leaped into action to save members of the audience, swinging on ropes and jumping over flames. The ghost of the theatre's founder then appeared to him and bestowed superpowers.
Uniform: All black, close-fitting clothes with a dapper black coat; floppy black hat with a blue, a white, and a red ostrich plume pinned on by a gold fleur-de-lys. Standard weapons are rapier, dagger, and pistol. Savvy paints his face with stylized makeup instead of wearing a mask.
Qualities: Master (+6) Dancer, Expert (+4) Jack-of-All-Trades, Good (+2) Confidence, Good (+2) Romance.
Poor (-2) Oh, Him Again (people are often dazzled by him at first, but the more they know him, the less they like him)
Powers: Good (+2) Swashbuckling, Good (+2) Wits, Average (0) Agility, Average (0) Speed.
Vulnerability: Average (0) Sacre Bleu, Can't You See I'm French?! (avid Francophone, avid countryman; but the French flag's colors are the same as America's so that confuses people, which really pisses him off)
Motivation: Rush in to save the day.
* * *
Loneliness comes in various flavors, and it can kill people. There are ways to cope with loneliness. Know how to help a lonely friend.
Isolation, rejection, and ostracism are miserable and dangerous. Learn how to fight isolation, overcome rejection, and deal with ostracism.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-21 11:41 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2020-01-21 11:49 pm (UTC)If you want to promote ethical and healthy handling of refugees, allow me to direct you to the Rutledge thread in the half-price sale. It goes into considerable detail.
Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 12:03 am (UTC)Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 01:14 am (UTC)Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 01:36 am (UTC)However, the mix of refugees can vary greatly from one locale to another. You should look up the ones most prevalent in your area, then include their language on your sign. Print it out yourself and tape it underneath if you have to -- they'll see you went the extra mile -- or if you prefer, choose clip art of refugees and make lettering underneath it on your computer, then print out the sign or take the file to a signmaker's shop.
Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 03:37 am (UTC)(many people) Arabic, Burmese
(2 or fewer families) Farsi, Urdu, Spanish, French, Russian, Haitian Creole
(Additional heritage or second languages, not mentioned above) Kurdish, Chinese, Portugese, Chinese, Luganda, Haitian Sign Language, Thai
There are probably a few other languages that are uncommon in the US and don't help with communication, so I'm forgetting them at the moment. I thonl some of the Burmese folks have additional heritage languages, for example...
Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 03:55 am (UTC)I favored larger languages for maximum reach; there's a limit to how many will fit on any one sign. But if you're doing a language outreach program or you have a lot of diversity, heritage languages become more viable.
Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 05:52 am (UTC)Somali? They'll be taken care of; oddly, there's a thriving Somali community here. A heck of a lot of them are into healthcare; I've had personal contact with at least three nurses from there. You should see'em light up when what passes for a bog-standard white dude says Salaam.... :)
Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 11:20 am (UTC)Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 04:04 pm (UTC)Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 04:24 pm (UTC)Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 06:39 pm (UTC)There was also the time I got invited to a community Eid celebration where I was one of two non-Middle Easterners and the only white person there. People were friendly, but I got a few 'huh?' looks because I obviosly stood out.
(The other funny bit is that this was during the Pokemon Go craze, and the event was at a park that was a Pokestop or something, so there were a lot of random people wandering around staring at their phones.)
Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 08:10 pm (UTC)Re: Also ...
Date: 2020-01-22 09:14 pm (UTC)My sign language ... well, no matter which one I'm using the handful of signs I know, apparently it shows that I've crossed through a bunch of them. Plains Indian Sign and ASL are among the complete languages I've explored, but I've also picked up bits of diver sign, trail sign, military sign, which are all mini-languages of varying degrees of complexity, and assorted things from other dimensions which can be either full or mini languages.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-22 03:38 pm (UTC)I think about the nearest in English is homesickness.
Well ...
Date: 2020-01-23 06:56 am (UTC)