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The Little Prince English translation | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6370 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 7 20 August 2011 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Before bilingual-texts.com ceased to exist, I downloaded the Little Prince in French-English and Italian-English. Today I came across a bizarre translation of a passage at the end of chapter 5:
French: Quand on a terminé sa toilette du matin, il faut faire soigneusement la toilette de la planète. English: When you've finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care. Is this a British or antiquated way of saying to wash yourself? Strangely enough I was looking at a Mandarin-English-French edition at the store today and saw the same translation. In the English only translation I looked at though had the proper translation. Any idea of what's going on here? I hope there is a reasonable explanation otherwise I won't feel confident using the other self-produced parallel texts I've come across. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6430 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 7 20 August 2011 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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It sounds like correct, though dated, English to me.
Every source of input has its perils. People make mistakes, whether they're talking in a bar or writing a contemporary article. There are regionalisms everywhere. In books and films more than a few years old, you'll find phrases that are dated, or which no one would ever say. The stilted language of many textbooks is also legendary. All you can do is keep your eyes and ears open to contemporary use, and ask native speakers when in doubt. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aloysius Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6231 days ago 226 posts - 291 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: French, Greek, Italian, Russian | Message 3 of 7 20 August 2011 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have tried but haven't been able to use the above mentioned English translation (by Woods). I prefer the one by Richard Howard in the audio book I bought on Audible.
Quoting from Wikipedia: Katherine Woods' classic English version (1943) was later joined by other English translations, as her original version was shown to have several mistakes.[5][6] As of 2009[update], four such additional translations[7] have been published: T.V.F. Cuffe (ISBN 0-14-118562-7, 1st ed. 1995) Irene Testot-Ferry (ISBN 0-7567-5189-6, 1st ed. 1995) Alan Wakeman (ISBN 1-86205-066-X, 1st ed. 1995) Richard Howard (ISBN 0-15-204804-9, 1st ed. 2000) Each of these translators approaches the essence of the original, each with their own style and focus. /aloysius 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6370 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 7 20 August 2011 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks...I also saw other passages that had weird translations. People seem to really enjoy the Woods
translation, though, at least according to some amazon reviews. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5311 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 5 of 7 20 August 2011 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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BTW, many tenured translation science professors have written elaborate papers about the pros and cons of matching old-fashioned expressions in modern translations.
Also it seems that some well-read readers find old-fashioned expressions somewhat charming. In this case one might argue that a more modern translation would have been easier to understand, however, one might also argue that the old fashioned translation helps students better understand the syntax of the French original. BTW, the most popular German translation in the current editions is equally archaic:
(In German, Toilette is nowadays only used to refer to restrooms/WCs.) Edited by Doitsujin on 21 August 2011 at 1:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6002 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 7 21 August 2011 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, "toilet" was originally to wash, and was effectively a euphemism (think "I'm just going to powder my nose"). It's just that we ended using it so much that it stuck. I don't think in the US you'd find many "restrooms" you can rest in -- the euphemism has already killed the literal meaning.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5042 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 7 of 7 21 August 2011 at 12:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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French: "C'est une question de discipline, me disait plus tard le petit prince. Quand on a terminé sa toilette du matin, il faut faire soigneusement la toilette de la planète."-
Russian translation (Nora Gal, 1958): - Есть такое твердое правило, - сказал мне позднее Маленький принц. - Встал поутру, умылся, привел себя в порядок - и сразу же приведи в порядок свою планету. A rough translation: "There's this established rule," the Little Prince later told me. "You get up, wash your face, tidy yourself, and immediately tidy up your planet." I don't know if I like that translation... Edited by espejismo on 21 August 2011 at 12:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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