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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 33 of 48 18 September 2012 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
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Month 15: Lines from L'immoraliste (André Gide)
Reading is becoming easier and easier. At some point I'll return to active studying ... but I have a few other languages I want to get to a B1 level first. Since I won't have much to log, I'll use this space to repeat some of the passages I've highlighted from my reading, along with my attempts at translation. Today: selections from the Immoralist: - Je m'épouvantai de ce calme; et brusquement m'envahit de nouveau, comme pour protester, s'affirmer, se désoler dans le silence, le sentiment tragique de ma vie, si violent, douloureux presque, et si impéteux que j'en aurais crié, si j'avais pu crier comme les bêtes. - Je cherche dans l'ivresse une exaltation et non une diminution de la vie. - L'air était presque vif, mais le soleil ardent. J'offris tout mon corps à sa flamme. - Vous brûlez ce que vous adoriez, dit-il. Cela est bien. Vous vous y prenez tard; mais la flamme est d'autant plus nourrie. - Ils vivent, ont l'air de vivre et as ne pas savoir qu'ils vivent. D'ailluers, moi- même, depuis que je suis auprès d'eux, je ne vis plus. - On a peur de se trouver seul: et l'on ne se trouve pas du tout. - Des mille formes de la vie, chacun ne peut connaitre qu'une. Envier le bonheur d'autrui, c'est folie; on ne saurait pas s'en servir. Le bonheur ne se veut pas tout fait, mais sur mesure. - Je ne sais plus, à présent, le diue ténébreux que je sers. O Dieu neuf! donnez-moi de connaitre encore des races nouvelles, des types imprévus de beauté. ____________________________________________________________ ______________ (I'm open to hearing any critique or corrections on the translations. Some of these are pretty rough) - I am terrified of this calm, and suddenly I am overcome again, as if to declare, to affirm, to decry in the silence, the tragic nature of my life - so violent, close to painful, and so angry that I would have cried out, if I had been able to cry out like the beasts. - I search in intoxication an exaltation, not a diminution, of life. - The air was brisk, but the sun was strong. I offered myself to its flame. - You are burning that which you once loved, he said. That is good. You are starting late, but the flame will be even stronger. - The live, they have the appearance of living, but they do not know that they live. And then when I am among them, I no longer live either. - We fear finding ourselves alone, and we do not find ourselves at all. - Of the thousand forms that life can take, each of us can know only one. To be envious of the happiness of others is foolish; it would not work for us. Happiness is not ready-made, but made to order. - I do not know, at present, the shadowy god that I serve.O new God! Let me know again new peoples, types of unexpected beauty. Edited by kanewai on 18 September 2012 at 3:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 34 of 48 21 September 2012 at 10:24pm | IP Logged |
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Month 15: C'est la faute à Voltaire
I started reading Balzac this week, but now wish that I had continued with the second book of Les Misèrables. I''m hooked, although part of it might be excitiment over the upcoming movie. I've never seen it live, though I loved the soundtrack and used to listen to it over and over in college. I just spent the morning listening to the original French soundtrack, and finally downloaded the whole thing in iTunes. If you've missed it ... Ann Hathaway is stunning in the new movie. From what I can tell, the songs in the English language musical are approximately 1/3 taken directly from the French, 1/3 adapted from the French, and 1/3 new. Here are the lyrics to Les Miserables: The Original French Concept Album (1989). I'll be studying these over the weekend! This YouTube clip of J'avais rêvé d'une autre vie is the original "I Dreamed a Dream," and has the French text superimposed. Rose Laurens is the singer. And these are the lyrics to the French version of the London musical. I haven't listened to this yet. One final YouTube link: C'est la faute à Voltaire. I don't this made it into the London musical. It's the song Gavroche sings on the barricades, and is also included in Assimil's Using French. It's a fun song. GAVROCHE Je suis tombé par terre, c'est la faute à Voltaire le nez dans le ruisseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau je ne suis pas notaire, c'est la faute à Voltaire je suis petit oiseau, c'est, la faute à Rousseau TOUS Il est tombe par terre, c'est la faute à Voltaire le nez dans le ruisseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau si tu n'es pas notaire, c'est la faute à Voltaire tu es petit oiseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau GAVROCHE Je suis tombé sur terre même Dieu ne sait pas comment je n'ai ni père, ni mère qui m'reconnaissent leur enfant je m'suis fait une famille avec ceux qui n'en ont pas joyeux drilles en guenilles avec une c_ur gros comme ça. TOUS Tu es tombé par terre, c'est la faute à Voltaire le nez dans le ruisseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau joie est ton caractère, c'est la faute à Voltaire misère est ton trousseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau GAVROCHE Je suis un va-nu-pieds mais, nu, le pied va quand même je prends ce qui me plaît pour payer, pas de problème je fais des pieds de nez aux marchands et à leurs dames TOUS Et pour te rattraper il leur faut plus d'un gendarme GAVROCHE On me connaît partout de Clignancourt à Belleville Je suis aimé par tous sauf par les sergents de ville je vis de ce qui vient, et de ce qui ne vient pas sans savoir à l'avance l'menu du prochain repas Misère est mon trousseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau On est laid à Nanterre, c'est la faute à Voltaire et bête à Palaiseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau je ne suis pas notaire, c'est la faute à Voltaire je suis petit oiseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau TOUS II est tombé par terre, c'est la faute à Voltaire le nez dans le ruisseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau si tu n'es pas notaire, c'est la faute à Voltaire tu es petit oiseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau. tu es petit oiseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau. Edited by kanewai on 21 September 2012 at 10:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 35 of 48 27 September 2012 at 2:42am | IP Logged |
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Month 15.4: Balzac is better than Ambien
I'm about a third of the way through Le père Goriot, and I'm struggling. Either Balzac didn't like to leave spaces between paragraphs, or he was writing before the French had discovered paragraphs. And so each will go on for pages, and contain multiple subjects. It's easy to miss the transition, and it's exhausting trying to follow the thread. Not that Balzac is all bad. He spent thirty pages describing a pension house (boring! especially since it took me about 2 hours to read through it), and then there was an interesting stretch where a young student de Rastignac stays up all night, and observes a lot of strange behavior among the other residents. Voilà bien des mystères dans une pension bourgeoise! Se dit-il. ("There are certainly a lot of mysteries in a bourgeois pension!" he thinks.) The next 60 pages were great - the story moved along at a nice pace, and I liked that the drama is centered around a poor house in the Latin Quarter. A major subplot involves a poor student, de Rastignac, and his attempts to enter Society. I think this is the plot of about 80% of the French classics on my shelf, and I'm a bit over it. But the pace has slowed again, and I've fallen asleep the last three times I picked up the book. This is not a good sign. I'm taking a Harry Potter break after this. Edited by kanewai on 27 September 2012 at 2:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4634 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 36 of 48 27 September 2012 at 2:32pm | IP Logged |
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Aww. That's disheartening to hear because I got myself psyched up to read Le Pere Goriot. :(
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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 37 of 48 27 September 2012 at 9:47pm | IP Logged |
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I would still keep it on your reading list, sillygoose1. Overall I like Père
Goriot, but there are parts where it's easy to get bogged down. I find that a lot with the classics. This last problem was an epic 12-page rant on the corruption of society by one of the villains in the story. I appreciate it now that I've made it through that section, and actually re-read it once more for enjoyment, but it was tough going in the middle when I wasn't sure what it was all about, or where it was going. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 38 of 48 05 October 2012 at 3:25am | IP Logged |
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Month 16.1: Out with de Rastignac and Père Goriot; in with Dobby and Harry
I struggled through almost 2/3 of the book before finally admitting that I wasn't enjoying Balzac at all. There were moments where I was almost won over, but for the most part reading Père Goriot felt like a chore. Some of other books I read were challenging, but there was always a payoff - Flaubert and Hugo were hard reading at times, but they would reward your hard work with a beautiful turn of phrase. I didn't get this with Balzac. His language was wooden, and most of his characters did not interest me at all. One side character did turn out to be a fugitive gay criminal mastermind, and that was a nice twist. For the most part, though, the characters were dull. Or maybe I'm just irritated at how slow-going it was. It took me months to read my first long French novel (Jules Verne), and almost seven weeks to finish Madame Bovary. Since then my reading pace and comprehension have improved significantly, and I didn't like going back to struggling for an hour just to read 10 pages or less. I might come back to Balzac again later, when I'm more proficient in French. For now, I'm putting the classics aside (for a bit) and finally diving into Harry Potter et la Chambre des Secrets. Dobby has just made his first appearance, and it's hard not to feel sad knowing what comes later. It's also hard not to be impressed by the scope of J.K. Rowling's accomplishment - to not just create great characters, but to take them in such wonderful and unexpected directions. I don't think any of us realized back in 1998 just where these "children's books" would lead. It's so nice to be able to just read a book. I also feel like I learn a lot more French vocabulary with HP, as I'm not struggling as much to untangle confusing passages. My goals for the next couple months: Finish Les Misérables, read a couple more Harry Potter books, and perhaps something by Émile Zola. After that I hope to be ready for some Proust! Edited by kanewai on 17 October 2012 at 9:33pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5389 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 39 of 48 05 October 2012 at 6:34am | IP Logged |
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I'm currently reading through Harry Potter too, though in Spanish (though I have it set
up with the Spanish and English side by side like a bilingual reader). It's my first time through the books and I'm enjoying them. Finished Chamber of Secrets last week and almost halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban. I listened to some of the audio book in French but I can't stand the voices the narrator does so we'll see if I keep that up. I need to pick up Le rouge et le noir de Stendhal again. I was enjoying it but I set it down and then never picked it up again. It is yet another tale of a man trying to increase his social standing but I like it. It helps to be up on your history of politics during the Bourbon Restoration. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 40 of 48 16 October 2012 at 11:49pm | IP Logged |
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Stendhal was on my list too - I'm glad to hear you liked him! Balzac had me worried
that older French (pre-1850) might not be my style. I picked up the next segment of Les Misérables (Tome 2: Cosette), and have been alternating chapters of Hugo with chapters of La Chambre des Secrets. So far I haven't confused the plots. This section of Les Mis starts with a fifty-plus page digression on the battle of Waterloo. I don't think it relates to the main story at all, and I'm reading it rather quickly. It's interesting to read about the war from the French perspective, but I'm anxious to get back to the main story. Fantine is dead, Jean Val Jean has been unmasked, and he is now racing to rescue Eponine before Javert catches him. How can the author digress at a time like this? Harry Potter and Les Mis balance each other nicely, though. Harry Potter is much more plot driven and fun, but Les Mis has the poetic writing and the insights into the nature of the soul. Here Hugo is describing Napoleon the morning of the battle: L'homme qui avait été sombre à Austerlitz fut gai à Waterloo. Les plus grands prédestinés font de ces contre-sens. Nos joies sont de l'ombre (The man who was somber at Austerlitz was gay at Waterloo. The greatest men, favored by destiny, make mistakes. Our joys are made of shadows). Books in translation can't match this style. Also last week: disaster on eBay. It's my first time using it, and ... grrr. There was a lot of eight Tintin books for about $40, and I was one of two bidders. I had the highest bid until the last twenty seconds. Some unknown person bid, and I couldn't type fast enough to outbid him. I know that's the way the game works, but what irritates me is that I am sure that I was outbid by a pro, who will just turn around and sell them at a higher price. I would have actually read and enjoyed the books. One more quote from Les Mis, discussing how Napoleon's "light" was being eclipsed by his tyranny: Babylone violée diminue Alexandre; Rome enchaîne diminue César; Jérusalme tuée diminue Titus. La tyrannie suit le tyran. C'est un malheur pour un homme de laisser derrière lui de la nuit qui a sa forme. (The violation of Babylon diminishes Alexander; Rome in chains diminishes Caesar; the murder of Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. It is a tragedy for a man to leave behind him a night which bears his form). Edited by kanewai on 17 October 2012 at 9:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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