In the blog entry titled Oddball Cover of a French Book on China and Africa, I quote a description of a French book:
L’une étonne le monde; l’autre le désole. La Chine, le dragon rugissant du 21ème siècle, et l’Afrique, l’autruche impuissante à affronter ses défis.
Babelfish (which often gives wonky translations) and I have interpreted the line “L’une étonne le monde; l’autre le désole.” as “One astonishes the world; the other afflicts it.” Some people have suggested that the line would be better translated as “the other makes [the world] grieve”. Perhaps I’m not clear on the use of the verb désoler. I’m familiar with its use in the apology “Je suis désolé”, but that’s about it.
In the interests of fairness and accuracy, if you speak French fluently and have a firm grasp of its idioms, could you please read that description in context and let us know which translation is more accurate? Just post it in the comments.
6 replies on “Calling All Native French Speakers”
Joey, your comments are correct: the partical sentence “l’autre le désole” should really be translated as: the other makes the world grieve or the other distresses the world. Your first translation was incorrect indeed.
Leila
Joey –
I’d translate it as:
One amazes the world; the other disappoints it. China, the roaring dragon of the 21st century, and Africa, the ostrich powerless to face its challenges.
but, then again, IANAFT (I Am Not A French Translator) 🙂
Jay
I’m sitting here with our household Native French Speaker.
We’ve bandied the “feeling” in “l’autre le désole” back and forth. “Wounds” is way too strong. “Distresses” is too strong. but “grieve” puts the subject too close to the situation. “Disappoints” sets the writer as too judgmental.
She offers up “saddens,” because the speaker is physically distant from the problem, but still empathetic.
Other than that she liked Jay’s translation. So:
One amazes the world; the other saddens it. China, the roaring dragon of the 21st century, and Africa, the ostrich powerless to face its challenges.
The beauty of French is only the writer has a clue what the word meant that day. (OK, that comment is mine alone.)
From a native speaking French, I believe the correct translation is : “One astonishes the world, the other saddens it” (not me, but hubby said it).
I concurr with Leila
I would suggest that the most accurate translation would be “”the other one makes the world grieve”. “The other one saddens it” could also be used but it does sound a bit to empathetic.
Rita
A former E to F translator
I agree =)
I’m not a translator either, but “the other one saddens it” sounds about right.
Olivier