Baba batrina, cu dintzii de lina…
In English this will translate something like The old woman has her teeth like wool… Of course, in Romanian, there are some sign over some letter, like de nju in spanish…
… and here is a portrait of an very old (100 +) Ortodox nun, Maica Michaela…
(Babã bãtrânã cu dintii de lânã = original romanian writing)
Copyright image Dan Iordache, 2008
danu
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About Café Crem
Café Crem was created by Miki and Kev Moore in 2007 with the intention of gathering like-minded artists, writers and musicians together around the coffee table to discuss and share thoughts, ideas, art, etc.
This initial desire has surpassed our wildest dreams with a myriad of collaborations taking place between the various members, creating pieces of work that simply would not exist without Café Crem.
Have a wander though in our different rooms:
“Cafe Literati”, the Literary Room
“Café L’Arte”, the Art Gallery
“Ca’ Puccini”, the Music Studio
and, last but not least,
“The MiniBar”, our creative space for our kids and teens!
You are all welcome.
Contact Miki at miki@goodaboom.com if you want to participate!
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Cafe Crem’s Video of The Month
“Soul Sketching”, by Susan Cornelis and Kev Moore
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God, what a great portrait Danu! So touching! This painting really seems to tell the life story of Maica Michaela. What more can one expect from a portarit, really! I am very impressed.
Is she one one of your nuns? Is she still alive? You make me so curious with her!
And what a saying! What does it mean exactly? I can’t see Michaela’s teeth, so I don’t know …
I associated wool with warmth, of course… do old women’s teeth warm them?
Strange, without having any clue what the expression means, i have the feeling that the picture illustrates it perfectly… I guess, because of all the small white lines on the cloak, they look like teeth, somehow..
But seriously, I am not kidding here, I really want to know!
Anyway: GREAT!
I wonder if the equivalent of that expression, in German, is:
“Zahnweh entsteht in der Kirche und vergeht meist auf dem Scheißhaus.”
Sorry, I couldn’t resist!
I won’t take the responsibility to translate into English, but feel free of course… you or Bonny…
I think it would be helpful for everyone if, when posting a saying, the idea behind it is explained. I understand the English words here, but the meaning of the saying totally escapes me. I would like to know. Could you explain, Danu?
Madame Monet
I am curious too Danu, What means this saying? Does it mean that grandmother can do or say only sweet things? Like Miki, I associate wool with warmth.
Well normally, at least in the past when this expression appeared, there were not dentists, so old women had no teeth at all, had they? Does it mean that they had no wool either?
Or that they eat only warm soap?
Sorry to be so late in explaining… for a change, I did some work these days (it’s been a long time since I didn’t paint every day and with some results…)
So: “Old Mother” (=maica) Michaela is a over 100 years old nun from a Ortodox Church in… Australia and I have to make the shameful confession I found her photo and story in a National Geographic… Well, we find our inspirations whereever we can…
The saying is more of a lament, associating old age (and since, statistical, women are living more, it’s a woman…) and “woolen” teeth, teeth that are soft, moving and ready to fall off… No big deal, as you can see… I had other sayings, much more poignant but no illustration to them…
Thanks for the explanation, Danu, we were all waiting with much curiosity for it!
Don’t feel ashamed for the painting from photo , the painting is fantastic and this is the only important thing!
I still find the expression quite poignant… Please let us know the other ones, more poignant. illustrations are not necessary at all! Who else could tell us sayings from Romanian? It is for me, and I believe for everybody here, very interesting. The illustrations are really secondary.
A great expression Danu, and Im beginning to think, a useful one. We have recently played a few shows where a lot of old people attended, who were moaning about how loud we were. Now, if they all have woollen teeth, perhaps I can knit them together, and I’ll never have to listen to them again!
Kew, you can pull their woollen teeth and stuck them in their ears… Old people are very stubborn and sometimes stupid (I just spoke with my dad… I love him but, man, can he be irritating!)
Haha! you could be talking about MY Dad Danu, I know exactly what you mean!
Ot MY Dad!
Oh, don’t get me started about old women and their teeth. We’ve been trying to figure out how to help my mother in law with her teeth, but she has so few left, there’s hardly anything to attach a denture onto!
I think when mine have all fallen out, I might employ a poor homeless child to chew my food for me.