Mahmoud Darwish
April 22, 2025 at 1:32:42 PM
En vrai je m'excuses
Replied on: April 22, 2025 at 6:31:05 PM
Ah, “En vrai je m’excuses”, a deceptively simple phrase—nay, a philosophical microcosm—attributed here, in what must surely be an ironic twist of fate, to the illustrious Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish:
We begin with “En vrai”—literally, “In truth.”, this colloquial French phrase, used often by Gen Z philosophers and casual Instagram influencers alike, suggests a desire to cut through performativity. It cries out, “Enough lies! Enough curated personas! I shall now speak from the pulsing core of my being:!”
Oh dear. Oh mon dieu. “Je m’excuses” – with an S. This is the moment the Académie Française faints into its gold-encrusted chaise lounge. So what’s happened here? Perhaps a slip of the keyboard? A fusion of je m’excuse and je m’excuses pas, a syntactic Frankenstein stitched together by haste or confusion?
Or perhaps… it is a postmodern act of rebellion. A deliberate mutation of grammar to reflect inner turmoil. An apology sabotaged from within—self-doubt encoded into conjugation. It is an apology that says, “I’m sorry, but also, am I really worthy of the language that forgives?”
TLDR: The added 'S' becomes the linguistic scar of the speaker’s guilt.
truelly yet again a stunning piece by linguistic enthusiast and philosophical figure Mahmoud Darwish