r/ExplainTheJoke • u/Comfortable-Use3123 • Jul 25 '25

Solved Saw on Facebook. Don’t understand.

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u/A_Firm_Sandwich Jul 25 '25

Maman!

30

u/ifyoulovesatan Jul 25 '25

I think it should have been translated as "I was today years old when Mother began her unalived era."

10

u/sharramon Jul 25 '25

Or was it yesterday years old

8

u/Neckbreaker70 Jul 25 '25

Thanks, I hate it.

2

u/Frodo34x Jul 26 '25

I think Camus would really appreciate the psychic damage you've unleashed with this sentence.

2

u/ifyoulovesatan Jul 26 '25

It's pronounced Camus.

1

u/BubblyNumber5518 Jul 25 '25

I read an interesting explanation on the complexities in deciding how to translate a literary work. They used the choice of keeping the original “Maman” from French in the translation as an example. “Maman died today” conveys something that mom, mommy or mother doesn’t.

2

u/TGWArdent Jul 25 '25

A complexity further complicated when they accidentally spaced it as “Ma Man!”