Glossary entry

Finnish term or phrase:

sarkataitelma

English translation:

folded frieze

Added to glossary by Owen Witesman
Jul 25, 2009 01:50
14 yrs ago
Finnish term

sarkatailelma

Finnish to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
Here's the whole sentence: "Hän otti taisteluhattunsa, mokomankin sarkataitelman!"

The context is a description (with some humor, although the main purpose is the history, not the humor) of Napoleon dressing for a meeting with another head of state. He just determined that a crown would not do ("darn, left it in Paris..."), so he's settling for his normal field päähine. Obviously I'm not looking for a literal translation...unless you can make it work!
Proposed translations (English)
4 folded frieze
4 contorted frieze

Proposed translations

7 hrs
Selected

folded frieze

It is a typo, the correct term is "sarkataitelma", as "tailelma" is not Finnish at all. The noun is derived from the verb "taittaa" or "taitella", which mean "to fold".
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3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I began from this answer: "He took up his fighting hat, hardly more than a folded piece of plain woven fabric!" "Frieze" is a type of plain weave fabric. The hat in question is a "bicorne". I chose not to use the word "frieze" for contextual reasons--no one in the intended audience would know what it means."
26 mins

contorted frieze

Could be a typo for sarkataitelma, which might arguably be translated as "He grasped his three-cornered hat, contorted frieze that it was!"
Just a wild guess, but the comparison with his mislaid crown is clear.
Note from asker:
You're right--that was just my typo. Copy-paste wasn't working for some odd reason so I retyped it...poorly.
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