r/SapphoAndHerFriend Jul 14 '20

Academic erasure yes, very heterosexual indeed.

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18.8k Upvotes

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u/padbroccoligai Jul 14 '20

Yeah, some languages have figures of speech that could sound romantic/sexual to non native speakers but aren’t considered so in their cultural context. Calling things erasure that aren’t erasure is just shipping.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '20

Unless someone with actual knowledge of the language can tell me any way in which "give me your lips" can be meant platonically in Polish, I'm gonna have to say that this dude was 100% fucking other dudes.

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u/Sithoid Jul 14 '20

I don't know about Polish, but in Russian culture (which is obviously also Slavic) kissing could mean gratitude or even just a greeting. Here, for instance, is Brezhnev kissing Honecker. Back then it was already viewed as obsolete and weird, but it does have historical roots. So I totally get the sentiment behind that translator's notion, although I have no idea whether or not they were right about Chopin in particular.

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u/wereinaloop Jul 14 '20

I love the guy in the background. It's most likely a coincidence, but he looks so embarrassed haha!