CZ to EN: Drimri a cene v pokoji

Discussion in 'Vocabulary & Translation Help' started by Darlin621, Feb 22, 2021.

  1. Darlin621

    Darlin621 New Member

    Trying to translate the inscription on my great, great grandmother's tombstone. It is difficult to make out. It looks like it might be Drimri, drimu, drimy ?
    then "a cene" or "a cine"
    v pokojo
    Then draha matko. I know the last says "Dear Mother"

    GGGma.jpg
     
  2. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    Hello,

    Drimy i cene
    is not Czech, but I think it may not say i cene but possibly vecne or rather věčně, which means "forever/eternally". Drimy must mean "sleep" (similar to the Czech dřímej) although like I said, it is not a Czech word per se. Lastly, v pokoji means "in peace". So, my guess at to what the inscription says is

    Sleep in peace forever,
    Dear mother.
     
  3. Darlin621

    Darlin621 New Member

    Wonderful! Thank you. I figured it must be something about resting or dreaming or sleeping in peace -- I just was interested in the exact words our ancestors chose to use, as that says so much, I think, about the relationship they had with the departed person and you don't get to know, generally, what people's relationships were like unless they wrote about them in journals and letters. The word that appears to be "drimy" on the stone was stumping me, but the stone is quite worn so it could be precisely the word you think it could be -- "dřímej" -- and looking at it now as a j and not a y at the end, it now looks like a "i" next to it (drimij). Anyway, I agree the gist is wishing restful sleep. This stone was carved in 1879. It's in a Czech-Moravian cemetery in Kansas. A few possibilities -- worn stone with some letters obliterated over time by prairie winds, or someone didn't know exactly how to spell the words correctly when it was carved, or it is using a Moravian variation of the word? In any case, thank you for the analysis. Language is so interesting and I am only just starting to try learning the language of some of my ancestors. :)
     
  4. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    I'm Moravian and I've never heard drimy used before in any part of Moravia or elsewhere in the country. :) I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it being some kind of a regional, archaic or dialectical variation, but as soon as you mentioned that the stone was not located in the Czech Republic but in Kansas, I thought the word could be misspelled. I lived in Texas before and visited a few locations with old Czech settlements. I definitely noticed misspellings and anglicized forms of some Czech words in the area.
     

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