trimmen - Dutch to English slang

[Joel S. Berson]

If this is a sexual allusion (speculation on my part; I have no Dutch
also), how about "perform" in both places?  (It doesn't fit either
"old-fashioned getup" or "solicit" exactly, but both excerpts do have
the impossibility of doing it simultaneously with fleeing.

Or if a sartorial analog is more appropriate ("trimmen" as "fit up",
"fit out"?):  "gussy up", "doll up", "pretty up", "deck out" -- or
with perhaps both sartorial and sexual overtones "primp" or "trick out".

Joel

At 9/25/2006 03:24 AM, you wrote:
>A colleague is attempting a translation of an abstract/concrete/surreal
>poem, and has solicited my help for slang equivalents of the word 'trimmen'.
>
>Not having any Dutch, I wondered if anyone on ADSL is in a position to make
>any suggestions.
>
>Here is her query:
>
>I'm doing the part of the poem (Bezette Stad, by Paul van Ostaijen, 1921)
>where the Prussian army is advancing towards Antwerp and the Flemish army is
>about to retreat and the city be evacuated; lots of bombs and chaos. Within
>asterisks are my attempts, but I'd like a word or phrase that could cover
>both if possible. I am wondering whether it might even be best left as
>'trimming' actually -- that way you keep a sartorial pun in the first one
>(although I don't think it's there in the original). In modern official
>Dutch, 'trim' appears to mean nothing but 'fit'.
>
>1. (in a brothel scene)
>Gaby-Recamier heeft geen poen te vluchten
>tailleur to ouderwets trimmen uitgesloten
>=
>Gaby-Recamier has no dosh to flee
>get-up too oldfashioned[,] impossible *to put out*
>
>2. de hoeren vergeten te trimmen
>zij vluchten enkel
>alsof men niet beide kan vluchten en trimmen
>=
>the whores forget to *solicit*
>they just flee
>as if one can't both flee and *solicit*
>
>
>-- Neil Crawford
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org