# Κεραμιδαριό ή εκσταση!



## Aelialicinia

This one - Κεραμιδαριό ή εκσταση! - confounds me as the power  of the idiomatic structure  seems to me at least to be lost when translated something like this:
 
"ecstasy comes as a result of being thunderstruck!"

NO! this is ridiculous obviously.  The context of the expression is thus: a privileged gentleman tourist-diplomat reclining in his wagon-lit gazing at the lovely terrain outside when suddenly he comes upon thousands of bloated, half skeletonized corpses.  

Your expert assistance is again needed here.


----------



## Vagabond

I must admit I have never heard this expression before, not even the word κεραμιδαριό for that matter; the only slangish thing I could find up to now, was this:

*κεραμιδαριό *το [<k>eramiδarjó] O38 *:* (λαϊκότρ.) το κεραμοποιείο, κυρίως στις ΦP _τα ΄κανε _~_: _α. τα έσπασε, τα κατέστρεψε όλα. β. απέτυχε παταγωδώς. _θα γίνει _~_!_, ως απειλή. [_κεραμίδ(ι) -αριό_] 

I need to ask though; is it κεραμιδαριό *η* έκσταση, or κεραμιδαριό *ή* έκσταση? The former could mean (and I am reaching here) something like "ecstasy turned into a complete failure/mess/disaster", but the latter would be like "disaster or ecstasy", "either disaster or ecstasy". Given the context, I'd say it's probably the former; as in, our guy was relaxed and ecstatic, gazing at the terrain outside, loving every moment of it etc, and all of a sudden he sees the corpses and ecstasy goes out the window (and yes, I am still reaching ).

Would it be possible for you to copy a bit of the text here? (Perhaps the preceeding sentence, the one with the expression and the following one?)


----------



## Aelialicinia

Dellara, as he was arriving, would be smoking a cigar in the
‘wagon-lit’. He would be looking out through the window and admiring the landscape. There, suddenly, he might be able to notice the corpses. *Κεραμιδαριό ή εκσταση!  *Dumbfounded in ecstasy! So, our job all day long was to push away the corpses that had misbehaved, inwards away from the tracks. So they don't show.

The original is  κεραμιδαριό *ή* έκσταση but with the "tonos" hanging to the right--I could no find it on my keyboard so I used this one *ή* .  I don't remember if it makes a difference which way the little hook curves.  If it means "or" - the problem is more difficult.


----------



## Aelialicinia

Vagabond - your suggestions are both excellent--I forgot to add that to my previous post.


----------



## balgior

Hello from me too! 

This is strange... Anyway, I thought it was a Greek text... Which would make things quite easier to us... And I am afraid we are missing the details that have taken place earlier... Where is it from, Aelialicinia?


----------



## ireney

Weird one! I first read it as "κεραμιδαριό η έκταση" and that made sense but the real one doesn't really.
"Κεραμιδαριό" (and I suddenly feel weird for knowing its possible meanings) means either a chaotic condition in an organisation/shop/company or that something was completely destroyed (e.g. Ο τυφώνας έκανε την περιοχή κεραμιδαριό). So, in a nutshell, something chaotic and not working and scattered and ... well I hope you get the meaning.

I can't fathom how ecstasy can become κεραμιδαριό unless (and that's stretching things a bit) it means something like "there goes the/my ecstasy).

Reading the previous posts I think I agree with Vagabond now that I think about it 


Edit: Re-read the excerpt: I think we might actually be right! He was in a nice state of nirvana and then those vile corpses dared destroy the ecstasy he felt gazing at the fields while comfortable in his wagon-lit. His ecstasy (I still think it's a bit too strong a word to describe his feelings) was shattered.


----------



## Aelialicinia

Oh Sorry--I should have posted the original Greek.. It is from _NOUMERO 31328_ by Elias Venezis  Chapter 18.  The Greek slaves have been forced to pick up and move the thousands of bones of fellow Greeks away from the railroad tracks so that the Spanish Diplomat in charge of the prisoner exchange won't  see them as he passes by in the train!

I would say one this is one of  the most incredibly brutal but sublime passages ever written in the form of a memoir.


----------



## Kevman

I think I've got it.  It is κεραμιδαριό *η* έκσταση.  The "little hook" over the η is not a tonos, but a rough breathing mark (δασεία) which means it's the article ἡ.  The conjunction "or" would have had a smooth breathing mark with a grave tonos here: ἢ.

What the phrase means (based on the slang definition Vagabond provides) is something like "The pleasure would be ruined."  The sight of all those corpses would spoil the traveler's delight.


_EDIT-_ Ah, Irene beat me to it.  We're swarming today!


----------



## Vagabond

Oh nice, very nice. Reading the text around the expression and your last post, Aelialicinia, I am being more and more pulled towards the idea of ecstasy that vanishes. They were made to remove the bodies so that Dellara wouldn't see them, so that his ecstatic state wouldn't be ruined. (I mean, let's not ruin the guy's luxurious trip by letting him see a few slaves rotting on the tracks, right? He might not be able to enjoy his cigar after that! )

I was going to say something about the accent mark over η, but I see Kev was faster  I was going to suggest the same thing.

Edit: Looks like ireney beat me to it as well! Damn you guys


----------



## Aelialicinia

*Thank you all...your brilliance liberates the text.*


----------

