Expressing long distance poetically

Question

How can one express distance poetically/romantically in languages like French that use the metric system?

You are miles and miles away, my love

Not bad.

You are kilometers and kilometers away, my...

Umm.

But some languages tend to use kilomètres instead of miles. Does kilomètres have the same lack of poeticness/romance in French? Is there a more romantic way to say it, like English does with miles?

Answer 1

I would use "des lieues"

tu es à des lieues d'ici, mon amour

The lieue is an old distance unit:

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/lieue#fr

Answer 2

Well, maybe you can use "far" instead of a distance unit ? Or light years !?

Tu es si loin d'ici mon amour

Tu es à des années lumières mon amour

Answer 3

Tu te trouves à des années-lumières d'ici.

Light years works in French and English.

Une distance insupérable nous sépare.

Une distance infrachissable nous sépare.

Un vide énorme nous sépare.

Answer 4

A really poetical way of expressing extreme farawayness (can that even be a word?) is, perhaps, this one: être au-delà de soi-même, but not in this religious sense.

Answer 5

I think “borne”, in either its “Pierre indiquant une distance” sense or in its “Familier. Kilomètre” sense (from Larousse.fr) could be used to capture the notion of [a measure of] distance perhaps in a less technical (or at least more casual) manner than would “kilomètre,” but as for being more romantic or poetic, I think that would depend more on the words accompanying whatever word you choose for “distance” than on the chosen word itself.

That is to say that I think the following phrases would be just as romantic (or not) whether one uses “kilomètre,” “borne,” or any of the good answers given so far:

“Borne après borne, kilomètre après kilomètre, nos corps s’éloignent, [mais nos cœurs garderaient à jamais l'empreinte de notre amour.]”

“Malgré toutes ces bornes et tous ces kilomètres qui nous séparent, [nos cœurs garderaient à jamais l'empreinte de notre amour.]”

“Hélas, 1000 bornes/kilomètres nous séparent, [mais nos cœurs garderaient à jamais l'empreinte de notre amour.]”

(please note that the final bracketed clause in all three of my examples comes from Gaby Bernier: Tome 2 1927-1940, by Pauline Gil, via Googlebooks, whereas the first clause of my examples, at least to the extent that they are not good and idiomatic French, are essentially of my own doing)