# I want to feel your bones.



## Crystalelyn

Coucou, 

Comment ça va ?

Je viens de lire un roman et le titre est : Feel your bones. Ainsi que la phrase que j'ai trouvé dans le premier chapitre, j'ai saisi le concept, mais j'ai pas trouvé l'espression exacte en français. 

Merci de m'aider.


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## snarkhunter

Bonjour,

Quel est le sujet de ce livre ? Parce qu'il semble exister un _sens figuré_ pour cette expression et qu'il vaut donc sans doute mieux en préciser ici le contexte...


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## Language Hound

Welcome to the Forum, Crystalelyn!
As "I want to feel your bones" can mean different things,
please explain what the book was about and what you
understood it to mean.

Also, please provide the complete sentence from the first chapter
where it appears.  If "I want to feel your bones" _is_ the complete
sentence, please provide the sentences preceding and following it
and tell us what is happening at that particular time.


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## Crystalelyn

Snarkhunter : Il me semble aussi, il parle d'un vieux couple. J'ai essayé de savoir comment le traduire, mais c'est un peu difficile. 

Language Hound : Thank you. 

The complete sentence is : "come here, I want to feel your bones". So, the character is lying in bed, and says to his lover to come to him, so his lover comes near his bed and sits on the chair. What I've understood is that he wants to feel him, but finding the exact translation in french is just difficult.


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## petit1

Je veux sentir tes os sous mes doigts. ??? Bizarre!


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## Datadox

Cela pourrait-il avoir le sens figuré de "te sentir bien en vie" en te palpant les os ?


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## Crystalelyn

Petit1 : c'est bien ce que je me disais, trop bizarre. 

Datadox : Non, ce n'est pas ça. Il lui dit de venir et il vient s'asseaoir à côté de lui en lui tenant la main.


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## SwissPete

Any connection with *jump someone's bones



(idiomatic, slang) to have sex. 

Click to expand...

*


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## Crystalelyn

I don't think so. Because the man is old and ill, he can't even move.


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## Language Hound

Crystalelyn said:


> The complete sentence is : "come here, I want to feel your bones". So, the character is lying in bed, and says to his lover to come to him, so his lover comes near his bed and sits on the chair...the man is old and ill, he can't even move.


With this limited context, my guess would be that it means he wants to really feel his lover against him.  Usually we would say something like, "I want to feel your skin against mine."  When you want to feel someone's bones (not "bone" and, no, I don't believe there's any sexual connotation here), you want to feel past the skin, to a deeper level.  I imagine him wanting to feel his lover against him in such a deep embrace that they feel like one.

I could, of course, be wrong.  It may be that his lover is very skinny, and he would indeed feel his bones in an embrace.

Since you say the title of the book, which my Google search failed to turn up, is _Feel Your Bones_, I imagine that whatever it does mean is a prevailing theme throughout the book.  You say you've read the entire book.  What is your sense of the meaning?


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## Crystalelyn

Language Hound said:


> With this limited context, my guess would be that it means he wants to really feel his lover against him.  Usually we would say something like, "I want to feel your skin against mine."  When you want to feel someone's bones (not "bone" and, no, I don't believe there's any sexual connotation here), you want to feel past the skin, to a deeper level.  I imagine him wanting to feel his lover against him in such a deep embrace that they feel like one.
> 
> I could, of course, be wrong.  It may be that his lover is very skinny, and he would indeed feel his bones in an embrace.
> 
> Since you say the title of the book, which my Google search failed to turn up, is _Feel Your Bones_, I imagine that whatever it does mean is a prevailing theme throughout the book.  You say you've read the entire book.  What is your sense of the meaning?




Your guess is like mine, when you say that he wants to feel his lover to a deeper level. It's the title of the chapter and not the book. I've read it, of course, and I thought like you. But I had a doubt. My only problem is the exact translation of this sentence. Anyway, thanks for the explanation.


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## Language Hound

> It's the title of the chapter and not the book.


Sorry, that's not what I understood from your first post.
_(Je viens de lire un roman et le titre est : Feel your bones.)_

I have a feeling "Je veux sentir tes os" probably sounds as strange in French
as "I want to feel your bones" does in English.


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## Crystalelyn

Language Hound said:


> Sorry, that's not what I understood from your first post.
> _(Je viens de lire un roman et le titre est : Feel your bones.)_
> 
> I have a feeling "Je veux sentir tes os" probably sounds as strange in French
> as "I want to feel your bones" does in English.



Yes, just a mistake. And you are right, it sounds really strange, that's why I need help. Can I say : "Je veux te sentir profondément" ?


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## petit1

"toucher" is perhaps better than "sentir"
I would avoid "Je veux te sentir profondément" because of its connotation.


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## Crystalelyn

Je veux te toucher ?


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## Kajeetah

Je trouve que ce serait dommage de laisser "os" de côté. Surtout si "I want to feel your bones" sonne étrangement en anglais (#12)
Peut-être que "je veux sentir tes os sur ma peau" ou "sous mes doigts" ferait moins bizarre que "je veux sentir tes os" tout court.


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## Crystalelyn

On ne peut pas dire "Je veux sentir tes os", mais il n'y a pas vraiment d'expliquations exactes, j'ai cherché, mais rien.


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## Language Hound

I don't suppose you could say something like:
_Je veux te sentir jusqu'aux os_   ???


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## Crystalelyn

Or "Je veux te sentir jusque dans mes os" ?


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## catver

Ne pourrait-on pas dire "viens-là, je veux te sentir tout près de moi" par exemple?


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## BETAPLUME

Bonsoir tout le monde. 

Et si on allait jusqu'à: Je veux sentir/ toucher jusqu'à tes os. ?


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## LV4-26

Could it be a touch of black, self-derisive humour?
Apparently, they're both old and one of them is ill.

I can imagine a context such as... 
- X said I was terribly thin, the other day
- (smiling) Come here, I want to feel your bones

I suppose it's not the actual context but you get the idea...


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## Crystalelyn

Catver : Merci, c'est plus juste en effet.


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## BananaFamily

Je dirais *je veux sentir ta chair*. C'est proprement français et ça renvoie à l'intimité profonde, quelque chose de vraiment physique . Je pense que c'est ce qu'on retrouve quand bone n'est pas utilisé pour parler des os à proprement parler.
De plus, on n'utilise pas flesh comme ça en anglais où flesh est de l'ordre de l'organique comme muscle, etc., de la même manière que bone en anglais a des nuances qu'os n'a pas du tout en français.


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## catver

BananaFamily said:


> Je dirais *je veux sentir ta chair*.



Mais pourquoi n'y ai-je pas pensé???!!!!! Je pense que ça traduit vraiment cette expression inhabituelle il faut l'avouer...


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## Crystalelyn

LVA-26 : I get it, but not really the context here. But thanks anyway.   Bananafamily : Alors peut-on dire : "viens là, je veux sentir ta chair" ? Je suis un peu sceptique, car le mot "chair" ne sonne pas à mes oreilles comme je l'ai compris.


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## Crystalelyn

catver said:


> Mais pourquoi n'y ai-je pas pensé???!!!!! Je pense que ça traduit vraiment cette expression inhabituelle il faut l'avouer...



Deux contre un, je vais vous suivre alors.


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## BananaFamily

Crystalelyn said:


> LVA-26 : I get it, but not really the context here. But thanks anyway.   Bananafamily : Alors peut-on dire : "viens là, je veux sentir ta chair" ? Je suis un peu sceptique, car le mot "chair" ne sonne pas à mes oreilles comme je l'ai compris.



Oui bien sûr. C'est le contexte qui donne du sens à l'ensemble, mais parler de chair est simplement original mais pas unusuel.


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## Crystalelyn

Oui, je pense le mettre. Merci en tout cas.


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