On the drink [finely pulverized, dense coffee, cold and anhydrous, consumed on an empty stomach] mentioned above.
"I recommended this way of drinking coffee to a friend of mine, who absolutely wanted to finish a job promised for the next day: he thoughthe’d been poisoned and took to his bed, which he guarded like a married man. He was tall, blond, slender and had thinning hair; he apparently had a stomach of papier-mache."
The original is "garder le lit comme une mariee". It's hard to know as it's semi-colloquial 1830's French, but I would understand it in the sense of 'he stayed in bed like a honeymooner'.
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You left off the better part of the story!
On the drink [finely pulverized, dense coffee, cold and anhydrous, consumed on an empty stomach] mentioned above.
"I recommended this way of drinking coffee to a friend of mine, who absolutely wanted to finish a job promised for the next day: he thoughthe’d been poisoned and took to his bed, which he guarded like a married man. He was tall, blond, slender and had thinning hair; he apparently had a stomach of papier-mache."
The translation is apparently inaccurate, it would be better as "and took to his bed, which he guarded like a bride".
both ways, i completely miss the meaning.
The original is "garder le lit comme une mariee". It's hard to know as it's semi-colloquial 1830's French, but I would understand it in the sense of 'he stayed in bed like a honeymooner'.
A married man's wife resides in a married man's bed
However, they may be different married men.