inside the home that Jock built
There is no French word for home -
that place of comfort, love and warmth,
to be ourselves, safely alone
or in company with family or friends.
Chez nous is not the same.
The Trifecta prompt today requires a 33-333 word contribution using this definition of home, a) a familiar or usual setting : congenial environment; also : the focus of one’s domestic attention <home is where the heart is or b) habitat and including the actual word. I choose to restrict myself to the challenge of using only 33 words
It is so beautiful. How sad that you had to leave it.
I love your poem; I was surprised to learn there’s no French for ‘home’.
Viv, this is gorgeous! As is your home. Thank you for sharing.
Your description of home was apt and flooded me with a sense of comfort. How odd the French don’t have a word for it. It seems it would be a universal concept.
Thanks for linking up. Come on back tomorrow for the new challenge.
Aww, it must’ve been hard to part with, Viv, but practicality has to win sometimes, doesn’t it? Like your poem, and your ex-home. I’m sure the new one is inviting too.
It is, cozy, but with a much better view.
Interesting! My level of fluency isn’t high enough to really get that sort of nuance.
that is exactly what home is. and the picture is an excellent representation of a home, snug and warm and safe. and that is a good point. i took french for five years (sad to say i’m not very good at it after all that time haha) and there really isn’t a word that captures the essence of ‘home’. your piece was very simple and sweet and made me feel at home. (:
really like the picture. like the idea of home being where we can truly be ourselves
How interesting that there isn’t a French word for home. I learned something new. The room in the picture is beautiful, I especially like the stone walls and the wood beams/accents.
It is so interesting that the French don’t have a word for “home”. It makes me wonder, of all those words for “Igloo”, does one of them mean “home?” Nice take on the prompt.
Which is why, when translating from English to French, more pages are needed! There is no French thesaurus/dictionary of synonyms!
I’ve always believed that English allows so much nuance that other languages sometimes can’t match. (For example, consider all the ways one can say “walk” (stroll, strut, saunter, amble, march, sashay, etc. and the degrees of difference in their meanings.) The absence of a word for “home” in French is a case in point. That being said, there are also words in other languages with wonderful meanings where English has no word to compare. (Umami and joie de vivre – and joy of living just doesn’t do it — come to mind.)
P.S. The room in the photo is gorgeous!
simple yet speaks volumes. Nice job
I love the photo – I love homes built in old barns and farmhouses in France. So strange that there isn’t a word for it… I thought and thought, thinking that I must be able to come up with something but I couldn’t. Have a good day!
Makes me think:
how do you define the difference between:
-I’m home-and -I’m at home’?
I’m sure we all know it but I can’t put it into words.
Could it be “I’m at home here” ie somewhere other than home home? Or maybe “Cooee, I’m home” shouted to husband after an absence
I wonder why the French don’t have a word for home – that seems so odd.
I was just thinking that too – it’s not just odd, it’s kind of sad.
Yes! The notion of home is so important.
What a lovely home. I can feel the wonderful vibes through the ether. The poem does it justice.
This picture was the home that Jock built from a derelict barn, that we sold 5 years ago to move up to the village before we became too decrepit.