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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5524 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 417 of 1317 21 January 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Argh, you're right! I have half a book. And I feel stupid, because the other half was sitting there on the shelf. This is one of those annoying editions from Pocket that looks like it was printed on a fax machine. And at least to my ear, the translator was struggling with some of Dune's deliberately strange and poetic turns of phrase. I'm pretty sure that "Thufir Hawat, Master of Assassins" shouldn't be translated "Maître Assassin," and Linguee seems to agree. Still, Dune is Dune, and I'm going to enjoy it anyway. Maybe we do need to swap halves, though. :-)
Worse than that: We have to hope that Tome 2 sells enough that he's allowed to publish the rest of the story. I think I need to write to the author and beg nicely for more. This would make a good action movie, sort of a smarter cousin of Banlieu 13 with a larger cast. I'll definitely post some sample pages.
- Planète terre has French audio and no subs. The narration is quite clear, but it's competing with background audio and music. In general, documentaries are even easier than news radio, which makes them great for intermediate students, or for more advanced students who want to flop out on the couch and take it easy. - Intouchables has ACCURATE FRENCH SUBS! No English here yet. Man, do I love this movie. - La naissance du Québec moderne en quatre temps is narrated in exceptionally clear standard French, with no subtitles. The historical footage is mostly in Quebec-accented standard French. I don't think this was ever intended for monolingual English speakers, in any case. :-) It's quite interesting, but it's definitely the Francophone version of history. The books and BDs are all in French.
Mission accomplished. :-) Seriously, I love visiting Montreal and Quebec City. There's a whole francophone world hidden up there. I've been living next to it my entire life, and somehow managed to miss out on it until now. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4680 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 418 of 1317 21 January 2013 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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What would you suggest instead of "Maître Assassin," based on Linguee? "Maître des Assassins" looks better to me.
So do the French have an allergy to thick books? It seems like everything over 300 pages gets chopped up into several smaller volumes and published separately. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4674 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 419 of 1317 21 January 2013 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I don't think it's the French, but some publishing houses. They also do it in Spain: they sell more this way. For instance, the Cryptonomicon is split in three books, €10 each. In English is available in a single book for €7, and it's still manageable. On the other hand, take a look at À la recherche du temps perdu and try to imagine it in a single volume... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5524 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 420 of 1317 21 January 2013 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I think we need a native speaker's opinion here. Here's the background: - Thufir Hawat is sworn to serve a noble house, and he's bound by feudal-style obligations to his lord. His title is "Master of Assassins". - It's unclear whether Hawat ever assassinates anybody himself. Instead, he apparently manages shadow wars of assassins and counter-assassins. The details of all this are never discussed, and it's unclear whether or not he has a staff. In other words, his precise relationship to any actual assassins is deliberately indefinite. I think the two most promising translations are Maître d'assassins and Maître des assassins. The first is analogous to Maître de conférences, and the second is analogous to Directeur des ressources humaines. But I think we need a native speaker to make the final call, or at least somebody who's read 100 million more words of French than I have. I can't find any evidence of French expressions that would justify translating it as Maître Assassin, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place. Still, this seems like a curious choice of title for somebody who may not be on the, um, pointy end of the whole business. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 421 of 1317 21 January 2013 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
- Definitely haven't read 100 million words of French, but I wonder if the d'Afrique/ de l'Afrique comparison from The French They Never Taught You, by Binamé & Socken might be of any help here...?
Edited by songlines on 21 January 2013 at 10:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5400 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 422 of 1317 22 January 2013 at 8:36am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I am not sure any final call is possible, but here are my two cents : - "maître assassin" means that he has "graduated" as an assassin. Literally, you are are of "master" of your trade. No relationship with any other assassin is alluded to. You can still find this kind of title today : "maître boulanger", "maître pâtissier"... - "maître des assassins" implies a hierarchical relationship with ohter assassins. What is unclear is wether this relationship is an actual one, meaning that he commands a staff of assassins, (this would be my first instinct) or a theorical relationship with the assassins all over the world, meaning simply that he is the best of them. Of course, one can always say that the first meaning is somehow part of the second one : if you are master of other assassins it means that you are obviously an expert in this field... Edited by akkadboy on 22 January 2013 at 8:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5524 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 423 of 1317 22 January 2013 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Thank you very much! That's almost exactly analogous to "Master Assassin" and "Master of Assassins" in English, which suggests that the translator should have gone for the literal translation here. I discussed this with my wife last night, and she also went for "maître des assassins" (she's familiar with story). Some further finds, all from the first few chapters:
There's a couple of artistically dubious decisions here, but I want to focus on kanly. This is not an English word at all. It appears to come from the Caucuses, and it's completely opaque to the average anglophone. Granted, rétribution usually means "compensation" in French, but it seems too transparent to accurately capture the effect of kanly in English. My opinion: The translator should have kept this word intact.
I have no idea what's going on here, frankly, and searching for renégats aux doesn't turn up any interesting idioms that would explain why the translator made these choices. What am I missing here?
This looked like another bizarre mistranslation, but it's really just incredibly sloppy proofreading. Since the entire book looks like it was printed on a fax machine, this isn't really a surprise. Now, Dune is one of the great classics of science fiction. Like The Lord of the Rings, it takes place in an invented world with lots of hidden backstory. There are all sorts of weird linguistic details. In other words, this book relies heavily on precise use of language to create an artistic effect. And since it's a major book, there really ought to be a careful French translation. Now, translation is incredibly hard to do well, and this is not the best translation I've read of an English-language novel. But I've found similar suspicious passages in almost every translation I've read, including translations from French to English. Now, I'm probably mistaken about several of these passages, but the point stands: If you care about another country's literature or films, you'll miss an incredible amount by using translations. If you doubt this, compare the French dialog and English subs of Amélie sometime. The translators tried so hard, and they still ended up sacrificing so much. Still, I'm enjoying Dune, despite these little niggles. It's basically a heavily mythologized version of Lawrence of Arabia, and I'm a sucker for this sort rich, created world that's revealed only in casual asides and assumptions that the characters take for granted. Edited by emk on 22 January 2013 at 2:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5254 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 424 of 1317 22 January 2013 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I just saw where you have reached your 1,000th post on HTLAL. Congratulations, emk! Your posts are always well reasoned and helpful. Your advice is never negative or dismissive. Your votes to posts ratio serves as a testament to your immense value to this forum.
You have probably written one of the best guides there is to advancing in a second language from a practical standpoint. When anyone wants to know how to progress after a course, this log is a great place to start to see what kind of effort is needed to do just that. I am looking forward to your next 1,000 posts! Allons-y! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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