Unsure of use of 'qu'en' here

I'm reading a book of proverbs translated into French, this is a sentence I don't quite get from the introduction:

Chaque peuple nourrit son petit ame de petites phrases qu'en des temps lointains, de sages ancetres avaient pensees, puis ecrites.

I understand what the sentence means, I'm not sure about the grammar though. Is 'qu'en des temps lointains' a set idiom? If not, why is qu'en used as opposed to 'de' maybe?

Why is 'de' used before sages ancetres, I was also thinking there should be a que before 'avaient pensees'.

Thanks en avance!

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on September 14, 2014 at 3:37pm

Chaque peuple nourrit son petit ame de petites phrases qu' (en des temps lointains,) de sages ancetres avaient pensees, puis ecrites.

So :
Chaque peuple nourrit son petit ame de petites phrases que de sages ancetres avaient pensees, puis ecrites.

or even more simply :

Chaque peuple nourrit son petit ame de petites phrases que de sages ancetres avaient pensees.

Is that any clearer?

"de sages ancetres means" (some) wise ancestors" Instead of "des sages ancetres" which would be grammatically incorrect.

Anyway my translation would be along the lines of:

"Every people feeds its little soul with small phrases that ,in faraway times , wise ancestors had (already) thought and subsequently written down."

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Permalink Reply by Seb Murphy on September 14, 2014 at 4:12pm

Aaah that's cleared it up, thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Robert on September 15, 2014 at 12:27am

How significant is the choice of de or des?

de petites phrases
des temps
de sages

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on September 15, 2014 at 12:50am

Actually , now I think again I may well have been incorrect to say that "des sages ancetres " was grammatically incorrect.

(it is what I was taught in school but wrongly it seems. )

I am not a very good authority in this regard!

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on September 16, 2014 at 3:47pm

Hi George -- It's not "incorrect" as such to use "des", but it is possibly a little informal for this context of a fairly formal piece of writing. I would also suggest that using "de" helps to emphasise the adjective (though I think not all French speakers get this effect -- maybe it's not so common).