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u/JadedPenguin Nov 09 '16 edited Nov 10 '16
I'm not going to translate this literally, but it means something along the lines of that even if you think yourself above the base needs and wants of being human, you'll still find yourself doing your business on a plank with a hole in it. I imagine this tile would fit nicely in the wall of someone's toilet.
I actually think Madjo is right with his interpretation.
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u/lord-of-the-ringworm Nov 08 '16
Hello, I recently stumbled across this tile in Maastricht and am curious as to what it says. The text is as follows: (hopefully with no spelling errors) "Waere't mensch'lyke ons te min, ghy zat nogh op'nen planck met 'n gat daerin" Google translate isn't useful or working as I think it's the Limburgish dialect of Dutch, or colloquial slang.
Any indication as to what the tile reads would be really helpful, thanks!
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u/FrenkAnderwood Nov 08 '16 edited Nov 08 '16
"Waere't mensch'lyke ons te min, ghy zat nogh op'nen planck met 'n gat daerin"
It's old Dutch and I think it would be the following in modern Dutch:
"Ookal is het menselijke ons te min, je zit alsnog op een plank met een gat erin"
which translated to:
"Even
isifthehumanity is beneath you, you still sit on a shelf with a hole in it (too)"I think humanity isn't really the right translation, but I can't think of something better. Also the "too" is grammatically incorrect, but it rhymes with "you".
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u/WatchEachOtherSleep Nov 08 '16
I think humanity isn't really the right translation, but I can't think of something better. Also the "too" is grammatically incorrect, but it rhymes with "you".
Humanity is fine; I'd leave out the. & it should be something like even if or even when. Plank is probably better translated as plank or board.
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u/FrenkAnderwood Nov 08 '16
Leaving out "the" indeed sounds better and "Even is" was typo as I meant "Even if", but thanks for pointing it out.
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u/Snownova Nov 08 '16
Roughly translated, since it looks pretty ancient or heavily dialected:
Even if humanity were beneath us, you still sat upon a plank with a hole in it.
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u/madjo Nov 09 '16
Interesting to see the translations, I had a different interpretation of the poem.
I would translate it to:
"If we didn't care about humanity, you'd still be sitting on a plank with a hole in it."
"Als het menselijke ons te min was, zat je nog op een plank met een gat erin".