Translating for Ornithoblog
I picked Ornithoblog for the 8 Random Facts Meme and he asked me translate. My French is a tad rusty, but here are what I think his 8 random things are translated into English. If anyone out there finds fault with my translations--please let me know:
1. I bungee jumped the highest bridge in Europe at 182 meters.
2 In 2000, I shook the hand of Charlie Oleg one evening at BDE in Clermont Ferrand, a few years before, I shook the hand of Jean Pierre Descombes (the voice of the "Right Price"). And I also did in a report at Julien Courbet's home (of Back on the Beach), what a class act.
3. My favorite authors are: Stephen King, Michel Tournier (Friday or Limbs of Peaceful) and Jack London.
4. I have milked goats, and made bread and jam.
5. I met my concubine under a real Indian tipi
6. I have a degree in "Master of Management"
7. I like to walk in the woods and along water's edge
8. I have been attack by a vulture (in a park), a pony and by a buzzard (hawk?) (it got me on top of my dark blue bike) but people are usually bit by poodes.
I'm not 100% sure on all of the translation there...especially the one about the concubine. Maybe that's just a pet name for his girlfriend? NBB has called me an infamous creature, I'm sure that can lose something in the translation. Again, if anyone wants to help in my translations, I welcome it. It's been awhile since my last French class.
1. I bungee jumped the highest bridge in Europe at 182 meters.
2 In 2000, I shook the hand of Charlie Oleg one evening at BDE in Clermont Ferrand, a few years before, I shook the hand of Jean Pierre Descombes (the voice of the "Right Price"). And I also did in a report at Julien Courbet's home (of Back on the Beach), what a class act.
3. My favorite authors are: Stephen King, Michel Tournier (Friday or Limbs of Peaceful) and Jack London.
4. I have milked goats, and made bread and jam.
5. I met my concubine under a real Indian tipi
6. I have a degree in "Master of Management"
7. I like to walk in the woods and along water's edge
8. I have been attack by a vulture (in a park), a pony and by a buzzard (hawk?) (it got me on top of my dark blue bike) but people are usually bit by poodes.
I'm not 100% sure on all of the translation there...especially the one about the concubine. Maybe that's just a pet name for his girlfriend? NBB has called me an infamous creature, I'm sure that can lose something in the translation. Again, if anyone wants to help in my translations, I welcome it. It's been awhile since my last French class.
posted by birdchick at 11:02 AM
10 Comments:
Not bad! I would qualify the biting poodle as little ones (standard poodles are "caniches royales"), but that's just my bias, not really translating.
Do allow me to help...
Actually, you did very well for somebody who studied French at school.
N.1 you got fine.
N.2 second and third bits: He says he has shaken hands in a shop with a guy called Jean Pierre Descombes (the voice over for the french version of "the price is right") and he was on TV ona show led by Julien Courbet (but you only see him from the back, on the beach).
N 3: Michel Tournier's book has been distributed in English under the title of "Friday".
N 4, 5, 6 and 7 are fine.
N 8: he's been attacked by a vulture in a parc, a poney and a buzzard (indeed a hawk for Americans see WIKIPEDIA (This one attached him as he was riding his bike) ... but people do get bitten by french Poodles everyday.
See ?
All in all you did VERY well.
N.
Well your French is better than my spelling...
The "attached" was supposed to be an "attacked".
Oh, Kitt, spacedlaw,
thanks so much for the help with translation! I knew I could count on someone out there for help.
So, there's a French version of Price is Right? And seriously, it was concubine???
It WAS concubine indeed.
And it does sound strange - a little technical - even in French. The word always sounds like the person using it has a harem of concubines. I would have expected him to rather use "copine" (i.e. girlfriend) instead.
And yes, loads of those game shows are translated in French (and as far as I can judge in Dutch and Italian too). They call that "global culture"...
That book by Michel Tournier is a version of Robinson Crusoe from Friday's perspective, and it's French title can be translated as Friday, or Limbo in the Pacific. I like Limbs of the Peaceful, though!
Hi everyone,
Good job Sharon, you translated very well... and spacedlaw did better than you (but he is French).
I am okay with everything he said : the busard was a "buteo buteo", there is a french version for the Price is Right. A Concubine is someone with which you live but you are not maried with.
Thank you all for your work. If I have time, I will translate every text in English (tell me if it is a good idea)
Have a nice day and see you soon
Oh, and here's where the "concubine" thing comes from: (from an entry on "concubinage")
"In France, Concubinage is the official term for cohabitation of heterosexual and, since 1998, homosexual couples. Some benefits of married couples or those bound by PACS (civil union) may then apply. In jurisdictions with common-law marriage, cohabiting partners may become common-law spouses after a certain length of time."
I imagine that lots of couples have fun referring to each other as "my concubine" instead of my significant other.
Well done! One mistake:
'Concubine' should be: 'Porcupine'.
I am going to start calling my partner "my concubine" immediately.
@Momo: Interestingly I always thought that "significant other" came from the French. And here we find out the French use "concubine" for it. I first encountered the term "significant other" in reading Le Deuxième Sexe by Simone de Beauvoir. I see from Wikipedia that the origin of the term the way it's used in America is more recent.
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