French: cobayeEnglish translation: (human) guinea pig 
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French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - History / WWII history | | French term or phrase: cobaye | OK, same sentence as before -- but with some historical confusion this time....
Je me souviens de mon enfance, dans la zone interdite, pres de la frontiere belge. Des camarades raflees. de mon amie du Conservatoire, qui avait ete femme-lapin. De mon arriere grand-mere, cobaye en 1914.
Is she talking about her childhood during WWI or II? Camarade "raflees" makes me think of friends arrested by nazis in wwII, but then she makes this abrupt jump to her "guinea pig great grandmother during wwI. What is the guinea pig part in reference to? THANK YOU!!!! |
| erolufsKudoZ activityQuestions: 32 (all closed) Answers: 1
United States
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| Clarification request(s) and responseDaniel Brennan: 6:04pm Dec 24, 2002: she seems to have an unhealthy animal fixation -
erolufs (asker): 2:39am Dec 25, 2002: historical references - do any of you have historical references for Odie's answer? Was there actually human experimentation during WWI?
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| | her childhood was during WWII | Explanation:
her friend (femme-lapin, see other question) was used as a guinea pig during wwII and it makes her think of her great grandmother who had already been used as a guinea pig during WWI
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Note added at 2002-12-25 14:56:35 (GMT)
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Both her friend and her great grandmother were used as guinea pigs - but this doesn\'t necessarily implies that her g grandmother was used in the same context - of course 1914 makes us think about WW1, but in that time there were \"scientific\" experiments using human testers going on out of a war context as well, not only in Germany ; and there are still some today - with the difference that people (theoratically) volunteer and are paid for that.
Without more context it\'s hard to say if it\'s really linked to the war or not in the 1914 case - probably yes but maybe not.
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Note added at 2002-12-27 13:43:32 (GMT)
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To Simon :
here are a few references about the forbidden zone :
\"Le 7 juillet 1940, le Nord et le Pas de Calais deviennent \"zone interdite\" ou \"Nord-Est Linie\" avec une ligne de démarcation sur la Somme.\"
\"oL\'occupation de mai 1940 à août 1944 :
Bruay connaît donc, pour la seconde fois, 50 mois d\'occupation.
La Région du Nord est placée sous l\'autorité de l\'Oberkommandantur de Lille, commandée par le général Niehoff, qui, originaire de la Ruhr, nous a juré une haine farouche depuis l\'occupation de cette région par la France en 1923. L\'Oberkommandantur dépend à son tour du commandement militaire de Bruxelles, et cette organisation dure jusqu\'à la fin de l\'occupation. De plus, les deux départments du Nord / Pas-de-Calais constituent \"la zone interdite\" * coupée du reste de la France.\"
(Bruay-en-Artois)
http://www.ifrance.com/BruaysEscaut/fsWar40_Occup.htm
I might be wrong but this sounds like Line Renaud\'s life.
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| Selected response from:
 Florence B
France
| Note from asker to answererThanks, Odie and the rest, for your thoughts and comments... I suppose I'll never know the exact nature of the experimentation on Samie's grandmother without talking to the actress herself. I like Odie's exsplanation for the seeming abrupt jump from WWII to WWI... must be simply a free association...
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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7 mins confidence:   |
| WWII
Explanation:
I woud say she refers to WWII. She mentions her grandmother's experience as if to add to a family history of persecution by the germans.
The French were strongly anti german since 1871, up to after WWII.
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8 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1 |
| either guinea-pig or else as I suggested in the previous answer a local role play or custom
Explanation:
i am more and more convinced that ther is a local role-playing local custom behind it all, which? I have not a clue...but I would forage that way (genre les rosières, les personnages de carnaval ou autres rôles dans des sociétés traditionnelles qui donnent des personnifications honorifiques à des gens du village ou de la région...sounds th way ahead, though can't tell better
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10 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1 |
| one possibility...
Explanation:
guinea pig in English is used metaphorically to refer to someone used as a human experiment, someone used to try something out for the first time.
It could perhaps mean that her great grandmother had had her first experience of war, already tested its effects in 1914 i.e. in WWI.
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3 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +6 |
| (human) guinea-pig
Explanation:
Like Dan, I'm pretty convinced this is referring to the 'human guinea-pig' idea, though in my case, I'm pretty convinced this is not FIGURATIVE, but rather referring to a LITERAL use of peopel for experiments (poison gas, for example?)
Sadly, the Nazis didn't invent the idea of human rights violation, just perfected it!
| Tony M
France
Native speaker of:  English
PRO pts in category: 46
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The translation workplace 
