Why do I need to know Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres?
Because in just a few weeks, Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres has become the unofficial slogan of student protests in France.
What does it mean?
The French expression Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres (roughly pronounced bees-mil-LAH, say lay tay-NEB-bruh) translates literally to “In the name of God, it’s darkness”.
Bismillah is an Arabic expression meaning “in the name of God” while the second part, c’est les ténèbres, literally means “it’s darkness”.
The two parts do not make much sense together, and that is precisely the joke. The slogan reportedly originated in a Snapchat message when lycée protests kicked off, from an account suspected by students of belonging to an undercover police officer trying to get intel.
The message’s apparent attempt to imitate young people’s language was widely ridiculed, and within days the phrase had spread to protest placards, graffiti and parody videos. However, there is no verified evidence that the account actually belonged to a police officer.
The French word ténèbres means “darkness” and is generally used in a dramatic, literary or metaphorical sense. Unlike obscurité, the more general word for darkness, ténèbres often suggests something gloomy or frightening.
For example, plongé dans les ténèbres means “plunged into darkness” and describes a sinister place without light. The word is almost always used in the plural in French, even when referring to darkness in general.
As for bismillah, the French language does contain quite a few words or phrases with an Arabic origin, some of the more recent ones making their way into the language via the slang of young people of Mahgrebi origin who live in the French suburbs, although bismillah is not one of them.
READ ALSO: 15 French words that are originally Arabic
Examples in the French press
"Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres": que veut dire ce slogan des lycéens français ? (Euronews) - Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres, what does this French high school student slogan mean?
« Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres » : quand une possible infiltration policière devient un mème à succès (The Conversation) - “Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres”: How a suspected police infiltration became a viral meme
«Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres», encore une expression qui fantasme l’argot des banlieues (Libération) - “Bismillah, c’est les ténèbres”: another expression that plays into fantasies about suburban slang
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