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French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / heraldic language
French term or phrase:de gueules
This term is in a blazon given to the Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, which is a Catholic hotel and cultural center built by the Assumptionist Fathers in the late 1800s in Jerusalem. The language is poetic / heraldic.
Here is the whole blazon: "D’or à la Croix de Terre sainte de gueules, au chef d’azur chargé d’une Vierge"
"la Croix de Terre sainte" refers to the Cross of the Holy Land (Jerusalem)
"une Vierge" refers to the Virgin Mary (the building is crowned with a very large statue of the Virgin Mary, which overlooks the city - the center is right outside the walls of the Old City).
I have no idea what the "de gueules" is doing there. (Also no idea what "chef d'azur" is about... or "chargé"...)
I have already asked a group of bilingual people in Paris. They were stumped. One of them said that the only solution was to have “un dictionnaire d’héraldisme."
I suppose it depends on whose rules are used... Here's a description of the American Heraldry Society's coat of arms: "Gules an American Bald Eagle proper displayed on a Chief Azure three Escutcheons Argent" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Heraldry_Society#Socie... ). They must have read thewebsite. They also omit all punctuation (also on thewebsite).
You're right about "chief" rather than "chef" - slip of the keyboard. But if you look at examples of heraldic terminology, they more often don't use initial caps.
"Or Cross of the Holy Land Gules chief Azure charged with a Virgin"
Colors and charges get capitalized, according to this reference: http://www.theweebsite.com/heraldry/
It may contain a mistake or two, but who's going to know?
"Or a cross of the Holy Land gules, a chef azure charged with the Virgin Mary."
"Or" means "gold".
I wouldn't hazard a translation of the whole sentence, but I do know that "D'or" translates as "Or", "au chef d'azure" is "a chef azure", and "chargé de" is "charged with". I know it sounds weird, but heraldic terminology has a language and grammar all of its own. Can anyone fill in the rest?
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +7
