Learning in Québec

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I'm someone who began learning French when I was 53. I took a BA in French at 60 but wasn't happy with my level of comprehension (though I read very well). So, having really become comfortable with Spanish only by living on the Mexican border, I'm spending more time in Québec and near the border of Quebec, in Vermont, to see if I can do that here with French. I want to encourage others to do the same.

Saturday 8 November 2014

La volonté d'être une fenêtre


Today was out to Ste. Foy to take compost to l'Université Laval, the only place I know with receptacles to receive compost. A young man at the Zone Coop helped me save a picture from the tablet in such a way that it might upload. And voila! Ça marche!

This is my apartment in Le Colombier, on rue St. Anne dans le vieux Québec. The picture reminds me of a poem by Albert Huffstickler that I translated to French, once, back in 2008 when I lived out at L'Université Laval as a summer dormitory resident. It's called The Way of Art and has in it a line about how the artist tries to be a window for others to see through. To be a window, of course, becomes the lovely phrase in French, être un fenetre. So here's another picture of the window. And if it works, I did it myself! Moi-même!

Well, that didn't quite work. What we have here is a little video of the snowbank near the skating rink at Place D'Youville. The only snowbank I've seen, and I guess the only one some children have seen, because their parents let them play in it. I guess it's a window, though, isn't it? Taken today.

Here's another window:

And here's the poem, but in English. Je ne sais pas où est la traduccion. C'est correct en français, la traduccion? Je n'ai pas ici un diccionaire et je veux mettre le poèm ici plus que je veux chercher le mot dans l'ordinature. Alors, ici:

The Way of Art

It seems to me that
paralleling the paths of action, devotion, etc.
there is a path called art
and that the sages of the East would recognize
Faulkner, Edward Hopper, Beethoven, William Carlos Williams
and address them as equals.
It's a matter of attention and discipline, isn't it?
combined with a certain God-given ability.
It's what you're willing to go through, willing to
give, isn't it?
It's the willingness to be a window
through which others can see
all the way out to infinity
and all the way back to themselves.


Albert Huffstickler


It's the willingness to be a window
through which others can see
all the way out to infinity
and all the way back to themselves

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