Philosopher of Chatelain

Posted by Jason Kravitz (Brussels, Belgium) on 1 October 2007 in Cityscape & Urban.

The political activists start young in my neighborhood. I caught this little fella in the act either writing or perhaps maybe just reading this manifesto and plotting world domination.

We have a philosopher in my neighborhood who often covers the walls with sayings such as these. My French is not so good but I think this one is saying something about death stems out of the life we choose... any other French speakers who would like to offer a proper translation... the last word the kid is covering is vivons...

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Comments (9)

Mike from Brussels, Belgium

Always dead, the part of life we lie is small. That's quite literal, but then again, neither English nor French are my native languages.

1 Oct 2007 12:50am

Mike from Brussels, Belgium

lie = live (don't know where the v went)

1 Oct 2007 12:51am

@Mike: thanks for the translation!

e. from Washington DC, United States

This is a really great capture. Thank you for the little bit of philosophy.

1 Oct 2007 1:06am

Helen from Melbourne, Australia

Fabulous capture with the young boy in front ... quite the paradox. My understanding of this would be "You are dead forever and your slice of life is thin."

1 Oct 2007 2:11am

Shahab from Qazvin, Iran

Great shot indeed!Would be a good choice fo b&w too!But that red color is really cool in here!

1 Oct 2007 3:01am

Aaron Schmidt from Auckland, New Zealand

"Dead forever ... tiny is the part of life we live."

I think he's trying to say that in the vast expanse of time, we are dead (or unborn) for most of it and the time we do live is the smallest of fractions, making it essentially meaningless.

I prefer the Aminus3 outlook: "Have fun. You only live once. So go out there and record the world as you see it."

1 Oct 2007 4:58am

Andrew Gould from Sydney, Australia

Firstly, great image, Jason! It's just got the right variety of elements distributed so nicely -- and then there's the colour contrast, too.

As far as the philosophy's concerned, I'll go with Aaron on this one... It sounds more encouraging... although I'm told that my Russian grandmother (on my mother's side) used to say, "you'll be a long time dead." Maybe I can just finish with Woody Allen's old line, "Eternal nothingness is alright if you're dressed for it."

1 Oct 2007 8:56am

Markus from Reading, United Kingdom

A moving capture, very nice composition! Reminds me of somebody saying " The earlier you die, the longer you are dead", quite strange feeling it gives!

1 Oct 2007 3:21pm