vocab

am i right to translate, for "d'hommes et de femmes qui changeaient sans cesse de nom, d'aspect, de toit et de visage"

into

the men and women who are always changing their names, their appearance, their haircut and their look

tia

isabelle

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Permalink Reply by Marc Vonhalmen on July 7, 2009 at 2:36am

"toit" is "roof". "Quelqu'un qui change sans cesse de toit" is somebody who's living a nomad life, for instance.
For the rest, I would really need the context to be sure to get the correct meaning of the sentence. "visage" is actually "face", not "look". "Changer sans cesse de visage" is quite hard to explain. I'll give you examples instead.

La direction de la société (=the management of the firm) change sans cesse de visage.
It means that the firm changes its leader quite often.

Les victimes de la guerre changent sans cesse de visage.
It means that the war keeps making new victims. (whoever they are)
(you could also say Les victimes de la guerre changent sans cesse de nom. It would mean exactly the same. There's always new victims. So, in your sentence, maybe those men and women don't litterally change their names... But, once again, I would need the context)

La mort change sans cesse de visage.
It means that people can die for many different reasons.