Literal translation
to be swollen
Meaning
to feel heavy-hearted, sad, anxious
Explanation
This phrase means 'to feel heavy-hearted, sad, anxious'. The adjective 'swollen' literally describes a state of distension or bloating, as with a balloon or an overfull stomach, and is transposed here to the realm of feeling to describe a chest or a heart that seems to swell under the weight of a painful emotion, to the point of hindering breathing or weighing physically. This metaphor of the body oppressed by feeling appears across many languages, English for instance saying 'a heavy heart' or 'a lump in the throat' for similar states, but the Provençal image chooses swelling, which makes it a distinct variant. The expression changes gender according to the person concerned, one form for a man and another for a woman, which shows it functions as an ordinary predicate adjective agreeing with its subject. The register is familiar, used in confiding a difficult state of mind, distinct from a medical context, where one would speak of bloating in its strict sense.