French And Holidays

Le mot juste

I have become very wary of the danger of making a perfectly accurate translation of English into French but one that is simply not how the French would express themselves. Years ago, when translating the booklet on the History of Mollans I fortunately had the prescience to get friend Steve to check my English. I had blithely translated “monument aux morts” as monument to the dead and Steve pointed out that we call that a war memorial; obvious, but I'd missed it. That was French into English but the same applies in the opposite direction.

So, establishing the French version of the media library for my website (www.mon-mollans-sur-ouveze.fr), I have been adding French captions to the photos as I loaded them. That is something I generally feel happy doing without consulting my French translators. One caption, however, needed to be for a photo of villagers dressed up in historical costumes for a parade through the village. I decided on “defile en costumes” (with acute accents on three of the “e”s which I haven't put in here because the Blogger software screws up the HTML after accents). It then occurred to me that “defile costume” (accent-free zone again and in following text) might be the term needed so I asked Daniel when he called in for an aperitif. He confirmed that I had the right expression, adding as an aside that if it had been a ball it would have to be “bal costume” (costume ball or fancy dress ball in English?) and not “bal en costumes”.

Daniel and I then chatted through some other similar traps. I already knew that an “assurance vie “ was not life insurance; it translates as endowment insurance. What we English call life insurance translates into French as death insurance, reasonably enough. Another example we came up with was the “mutiles de guerre” notices that used to be placed next to selected seats on Paris metro trains. In English that wouldn't be war mutilated but war wounded (blesse in French); same idea, just a different way of expressing it. Incidentally it occurred to me that both French and English expressions for war memorial were inadequate. The term war memorial is not a memorial for a war but for the dead of a war; the term “monument aux morts” is not for the dead in general but for the dead of a war or wars. So both cultures have made compromises without finding a succinct “mot juste”. What should the (succinct) expression be?

Spell-checkers

Decades ago, when electronic calculators were the new “must have”, an American IT friend commented to me that it was a pity because American kids were losing the ability to calculate themselves and calculators often made errors, particularly when the batteries were running down. I knew the problem and always made a round-figure mental calculation when using a calculator and believed the result if it was broadly the same. An analogous situation now is with spell-checkers; evidence on the internet suggests kids can no longer spell and aren't aware of the dangers of relying on spell-checkers.

The Holidays

The “fetes” as they are known here have passed quietly and happily as far as I am concerned. For me, an atheist, Christmas is all about kids and their excitement. In their absence, and since days off work are no longer relevant, Christmas is little more than an occasion to spend something extra on food and drink; also an occasion when most people feel they should be jolly (“disapproval would be folly”: Tom Lehrer). When I was in my teens, it was about that and parties. The same goes more or less for the new year, except that young kids don't really come into it, except for any fireworks displays going on locally or on TV. There is always a “reveillon” or two in the village but I've never felt inclined to sign up for them. So it has been for me.

My one outstanding memory of the new year is witnessing some car carnage when tracking back home in the very icy early morning with a girlfriend from a party in central London. A car parked along the road we were walking along was trying to extricate itself from a line of parked cars with a ridge of iced snow against its outside wheel. Revving up to the maximum it escaped the ridge only to slither across the road and crash into cars parked opposite, ricochet back into cars parked on the side it had been, ricochet again into cars parked on the opposite side and then drive on, leaving seven or eight cars on either side of the road distinctly damaged. No happy new year for some.