# histoire de cul ratée



## Souxie

*Tout ça, ce n'est finalement qu'une histoire de cul ratée*
Les échanges d'emails, de textos, de photos, les rendez-vous qu'on n'a pas pu se fixer, l'envie qui est montée trop fort et qui est finalement redescendue, tout ça, ce n'est finalement qu'une histoire de cul ratée:

Je ne sais vraiment pas comment le dire...all of it, finally this is just a bad sex story?


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## Keith Bradford

...a failed sex affair.


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## vanya1238

"sex affair" me semble étrange.  Je pense que "love affair" servira.

[Desolé, je ne peux pas continuer en français!]  That phrase doesn't _necessarily _mean it involved sex but it certainly suggests it.

Aussi, je dirai "in the end" au lieu de "finally." "Finally", le plupart du temps, veut dire que quelque chose ésperé a passé enfin.  Ce n'a pas vraiment le sens de "au fin de l'histoire" que je pense "finallement" a.


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## Keith Bradford

vanya1238 said:


> "sex affair" me semble étrange.


 
Yes, well, I made it up.  See other threads for the difficulties with "histoire de cul".


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## Souxie

Effectivement j'ai lu tout ce que j'ai pu sur "histoire de cul" et rien n'est vraiment satisfaisant comme traduction...étrange, n'est-ce-pas, car c'est une expression très très utilisée, très banale.
*Sex affair* sonnait bien, dommage qu'elle n'existe pas vraiment.


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## Keith Bradford

Si, désormais elle existe !  Tout anglophone comprendra.


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## akaAJ

"Just another abortive dirty love affair."  But, doesn't "histoire de cul" also mean "histoire grivoise", just a dirty joke ???


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## xiancee

"The failure of a sex story"?


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## akaAJ

Granted that "love" may not in fact enter, "love affair" is the far more usual expression for "sexual encounter of some duration"  than "sex affair", let alone "sex story".


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## Wozzeck

"Sex affair" sounds to me pretty good. Even if this seems to be a new form, I think this is better in our case. 

French word "Cul" is used here to say "sex act" (without feeling of love), but in a colloquial manner (nearly slang).

'Hhstoire de sexe" : correct
"Histoire de fesses" : same but colloquial
"Histoire de cul" : same but colloquial and nearly slang (X rated film are also called in french spoken language "Film de Cul". 

The author seems to feel disillusion and disappointment. We could think that story could have begun as a "Love story" or eventually as a "love affair" (or the author wanted to) , but at the end the author must admit that this story was a simple story of sex desire without romantic feeling.

To tell his disillusion the author uses colloquial language ("histoire de cul" rather than "histoire de sexe") to focus on the vulgarity of this story and to show some disgust.

Love Story => Histoire d'amour
Love affair => mélo amoureux ? intrigue amoureuse ? (a complex love story)
Sex affair => Histoire de sexe, intrigue sexuelle ???


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## xiancee

I get your point Wozzeck and of course "sex affair" translates " Histoire de sexe"; If we want to keep the "cul" metonym (if I may say so) we can say something like "She was just a piece of ass" 
Can't we???
(It goes without saying that this is mere fiction)


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## Coq

On peut s'inspirer des (multiples  ) posts sur plan cul, fuck friends, booty call, plan d'un soir...
ex. that was just a flunked/failed fuck friend story.


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## Wozzeck

xiancee said:


> I get your point Wozzeck and of course "sex affair" translates " Histoire de sexe"; If we want to keep the "cul" metonym (if I may say so) we can say something like "She was just a piece of ass"
> Can't we???
> (It goes without saying that this is mere fiction)




Histoire de cul : a piece of ass (slang), from my point of view yes I agree

But as the author don't intend to be "pornographic", I am not sure that he wants to translate the full "slang" effect. He may use "Histoires de cul" as a strict equivalent of "Histoire de fesses"

I am not sure that he is aware of what the "good" translation would give in english.

From my point of view "Cul" is really slang and not simply colloquial as "Fesses", but perhaps the author won't agree with me...

Another solution : a sexual intercourse (colloquial but not slang => une vulgaire coucherie). It can translate the effect of colloquial language a little better than "sex affair"

"Sexual Intercourse" would match with "Histoires de fesses", and would be more acceptable.

Now I think he can choose....


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## akaAJ

No, we can't even come close to saying "She was just a piece of ass";  "cul" here is not gender-asymmetric, nor does it make a value judgment about the two participants.  As KB notes, he _invented_ "sex affair" for the occasion, and I repeat that, inaccurate as it may be, "love affair" (or just "affair"*) is the standard usage (even for this abortive version).  

Let's reread the text: "Les échanges d'emails, de textos, de photos, les rendez-vous qu'on n'a pas pu se fixer";  these are straightforward attempts to initiate a relationship, not a one-night stand, whether or not either party intends the relationship to be permanent.  No doubt sex is on their minds, but the emphasis is on "ratée":  the repeated frustration, in the absence of any face-to-face encounter, cools the initial enthusiasm until it fizzles ("l'envie qui est montée trop fort et qui est finalement redescendue, tout ça, ce n'est finalement qu'une histoire de cul ratée").

*Two Jewish matrons meet.  A: "You're looking marvelous, rosy complectioned; you haven't looked this good in ages". B: "I'm having an affair". A: "Who is your caterer?"


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## Souxie

Bien vu, akaAJ, bonne analyse.
_Histoire de cul_ n'est pas pour moi vulgaire mais très familier, c'est synonyme de _histoire de fesse,_ mais _histoire de fesse_ a pour moi une connotation de sexualité qui ne s'assume pas, c'est pourquoi je ne l'utilise pas. Je dirai une _histoire sans lendemain_, ou bien _une histoire sexuelle_ si je devais en parler à quelqu'un que je craindrais de choquer avec _histoire de cul_.
Par contre _Film de cul_ est vulgaire, cela est sans doute dû à ce que l'on désigne et non pas à l'expression elle-même: une histoire de cul ce n'est pas forcément vulgaire, alors qu'un film porno ça l'est souvent.
*Sex affair* reste l'expression qui me semble la plus proche, elle n'est pas hypocrite et sans connotation péjorative, elle désigne juste ce qu'elle est. Il est vrai que le choix de histoire de cul est aussi guidé par les sentiments de frustration et de déception: absence de possible amour, brutalité de la réalité qu'on ne retrouve peut-être pas avec sex affair mais sans doute avec failed.
*Piece of ass*, je ne connais pas, je ne l'ai pas trouvé sur WR donc je ne sais pas quelle est sa fréquence d'utilisation, mais ça ressemble pas mal à _histoire de cul_, non? Ca a l'air bien.


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## xiancee

En quoi Histoire de fesse est plus "sexuel" que histoire de "cul" ? Serait ce a cause de coté "cucul " de "cul"?
Mais je comprends tout a fait la connotation avec film.

A propos de "piece of ass" 
Définition : 
http://www.yourdictionary.com/piece-of-ass
*29 700 000* hits sur Google pour *piece of ass*!


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## Souxie

xiancee, nous ne nous sommes pas compris; j'ai écrit: "mais _histoire de fesse_ a pour moi une connotation de sexualité qui ne s'assume pas" car je trouve que le mot fesse est assez éloigné ou hypocrite pour désigner une histoire de cul, on dirait que le mot fesse n'ose pas être cru. Je ne sais pas si je suis claire...


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## xiancee

Ok, "no soocee!" tout est plus clair pour moi !
Merci pour ces précisions ! le cul est plus cru et la fesse ne se nomme pas comme telle ! D'ailleurs son étymologie même la dénonce bien comme ne voulant pas désigner ce qu'elle est ou plutôt ce qu'elles sont!


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## Wodwo

Souxie said:


> *Sex affair* reste l'expression qui me semble la plus proche, elle n'est pas hypocrite et sans connotation péjorative, elle désigne juste ce qu'elle est.



I wish this worked, but for me it doesn't. It sounds too… prim somehow, not the right connotations as a translation of "histoire de cul". I can imagine it being said by a lady in a British 1950s film, after casting around for an expression that is accurate without being dirty.

I can't think of anything better though. We can say this kind of thing in English, of course! But we'd phrase it differently. We wouldn't start from a sentence structure that had a space to be filled by an equivalent of "histoire de cul".

"A piece of ass" is a (non-)person - I've only heard it used to refer to women, but I imagine it's sometimes used of men, either by another man or by a woman who likes to sound a bit aggressive. Either way, it's not what happens between two people.


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## Language Hound

I'm sure that, after more than five years, the OP is not still trying to translate this.
However, since Wodwo resurrected this thread, I'll throw in my two cents.
Taking a few liberties, my suggestion would be:
_...all this, in the end, amounts to nothing more than a failed sordid affair._


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## AmaryllisBunny

"Failed attempts at getting laid/some ass" is my proposition.

"A piece of ass" is either _a person_, _a person's ass_, or _sex (getting laid)_. It is most commonly used to refer to the latter two—e.g., "I'm gonna get me a piece of datass"  (I am going to f**k them), "That is some piece of ass" (They have a nice rump).

"[Even] after all of that, it was just a failed attempt at getting laid."

Edit:

*"Unsuccessful booty call"*


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## Language Hound

AmaryllisBunny said:


> "Failed attempts at getting laid/some ass" is my proposition..."[Even] after all of that, it was just a failed attempt at getting laid."
> 
> Edit:
> 
> *"Unsuccessful booty call"*


This would work only if they _didn't_ have sex.

_*"Tout ça, ce n'est finalement qu'une histoire de cul ratée."*_
I think you're taking "ratée" here to mean "manqué" or "missed"
while I understand it to mean "non réussi" or "failed."


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## AmaryllisBunny

Hmm... In that case, "Just another closed chapter of/on failed [sexual] escapades." Perhaps the register is off, but ...


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## wildan1

Register-wise, it might be closer to ..._just another sorry hook-up that never happened._


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## CarlosRapido

... a failed sexcapade???


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## djweaverbeaver

I like hook-up and booty call are best in the American context.  I don't know (of) any young people (ie. people my age) who talk about _sexcapades_.  How about  *Just (another) hook-up/booty call that never was*?


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## Kecha

that never happened, that never was... I'm not sure that was what was meant here... "histoire de cul ratée" doesn't mean they did not have sex, as several people pointed out, it means than not only did it turn out into a one-night stand (instead of a long romance), but on top of that it was a crap one for some reason...


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## Language Hound

I agree with Kecha (with the exception of the one-night stand part).
I don't think "just another sorry hook-up _that never happened_"
or "Just (another) hook-up/booty call _that never was" _work here
because I believe there _were_ actually hook-ups and booty calls.
(A "one-night stand" would mean there was just one.)
It's just that the relationship did not turn out to be a long, successful romance.
It is their _histoire_ (which I would personally translate here as "affair") which is _ratée,_
not the sex.


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## admetus

Hello,

Sex obviously sells.

Whilst I agree that, in isolation,


Kecha said:


> "_histoire de cul ratée_" doesn't mean they did not have sex


in context (this is the OP)


Souxie said:


> Les échanges d'emails, de textos, de photos, les rendez-vous qu'on n'a pas pu se fixer, l'envie qui est montée trop fort et qui est finalement redescendue, tout ça, ce n'est finalement qu'une histoire de cul ratée


I would agree with


akaAJ said:


> Let's reread the text: "Les échanges d'emails, de textos, de photos, les rendez-vous qu'on n'a pas pu se fixer";  these are straightforward attempts to initiate a relationship, not a one-night stand, whether or not either party intends the relationship to be permanent.  No doubt sex is on their minds, but the emphasis is on "ratée":  the repeated frustration, in the absence of any face-to-face encounter, cools the initial enthusiasm until it fizzles ("l'envie qui est montée trop fort et qui est finalement redescendue, tout ça, ce n'est finalement qu'une histoire de cul ratée").


which, I think, expresses it quite well. In the end, I am actually quite taken by


djweaverbeaver said:


> Just another hook-up that never was


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