A very important addition to the Romanian road side. Particularly for people who are not familiar with the fact that driving through any village you are likely to find extremely pissed up people staggering in front of your car, just collapsing on the road in front of you, or if they're on a bike, slaloming slowly up and down the street.
Story here. Though I wouldn't trust the Telegraph's translation of the sign. As far as I know it says (quite poetically) "Tormented Citizens"
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Well, “turmentaţi” can mean tormented [I doubt many people use it for this purpose], but it’s almost always used as a rather more polite way of saying drunk.
The article is amusing – “vibrant night life” – that’s a nice euphemism for “we get drunk and walk about”. I’m pretty sure it sends the wrong message. Is the sign even legal?
That's a shame. Tormented is such a nice euphemism for drunk.
Yes, I too thought that "vibrant night life" might be a bit over the top for a village of this size in Romania.
However, for a border town I think it might not be a bad idea. While people just popping over from Hungary probably know what to expect, those from further afield are probably not necessarily expecting the skills necessary to avoid all of the various obstacles on Romanian roads. And "Warning- drunk people" is easier to grasp and put across on a sign than "There are no pavements in this village, so the driving dangers are therefore increased significantly"
The phrase would be immediately familiar to moderately educated Romanians as a reference (call it an hommage!) to Romania's leading 19th century playwright and satirist, Caragiale.
"Cetateanul turmentat" -- "The Inebriated Punter" would be a pretty good translation, with its faux-posh/ironic ovetones -- is one of his most famous creations.
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