French to English

Question

French to English

zdas04 (Mechanical)

(OP)

29 Oct 15 16:46

I'm reading a document translated from French, and they didn't translate some stuff that seemed external to them. One line was

Quote:
Chimera, prejudice, sombre falsehood
Victor Hugo: Les Châtiments

All of the online translators say the English is

Quote:
chimera, prejudice, dark falsehood

Which doesn't seem to make sense. Anyone willing to take a shot at this?

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 1 · 2015-10-29 19:02:21

somber and dark are synonyms, but somber has connotations that dark does not, and vice-versa. This is one reason why you would not want literature to be machine translated; it still takes a human reader to adequately translate nuances in the language.

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zdas04 (Mechanical) · Answer 2 · 2015-10-29 19:33:34

But what is a reasonable translation?

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 3 · 2015-10-29 19:55:42

It'll depend on the context; is that all of the text?

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IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 4 · 2015-10-29 20:10:09

Let's just say that for a literary work, somber is probably more colorful than dark.

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zdas04 (Mechanical) · Answer 5 · 2015-10-29 20:54:12

That was it. It was a quotation at the beginning of a chapter. It is the only chapter I've come to so far that had such a quote on the title page.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 6 · 2015-10-29 22:05:09

What's the subject of the chapter?

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IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 7 · 2015-10-29 22:22:24

never mind, found it, I think: http://www.scmsa.eu/archives/SCM_RC_2015_08_24_EN....

I can't find anything to suggest that it's an actual quote, since it seems to be a splice of words used in the cited book of poems by Hugo. Given the nature of the paper and your own leanings, I would go with "dismal lie."

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zdas04 (Mechanical) · Answer 8 · 2015-10-30 03:17:55

LOL, Thank you.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

kingnero (Mechanical) · Answer 9 · 2015-10-30 13:02:35

Chimaera comes from greek mythology. google will probably more about it than I could ever tell you.

prejudice is probably the same in english.

sombre falsehood is a dark statement, as in related with sadness or death.

Those three words aren't supposed to be a sentence, just some thought, but you probably already knew this. This is done sometimes in latin-descendant languages.

I had to read that book during high school, when learning french, amongst many other french literature.

chicopee (Mechanical) · Answer 10 · 2016-01-10 19:59:19

"...But what is a reasonable translation?..." One that is free of idiomatic expressions

IRstuff (Aerospace) · Answer 11 · 2016-01-10 21:01:29

A reasonable translation is one that most accurately reflects the author's intents, idioms or not.

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