French Poetry to English, si'l vous plait

[candi]

I know almost no French; I can order a meal or a beer and swear a little, but that is the extent of my vocabulary. Would a French speaker be so kind as to translate the following passage ?


The lines are from, Justine, a book by Lawrence Durrell, one of my favorite authors. I generally hate foreign passages in English books, but he was so brilliant and spoke so many languages, he probably couldn't help himself, so I forgive him.

"je n'ai pas une jeune fille qui saurait me gouter [gouter has that upside down v over the u, but I don't know how to type it on this keyboard]. Ah ! oui, une garde-malade ! Une garde-malade pour l'amour de l'art, ne donnant ses baisers qu'à des mourants, des gens in extremis...." [in extremis is italicised so I imagine it's Latin - English translation = 'at the point of death'; also, the a in qu'à is accented toward the right, but I can't type these, either.

Durrell was quoting the French poet, Jules Laforgue, so there may be no adequate translation, but I would be grateful to anyone who would try.

ciao,
candi

[michka]

This is quite a free translation, I do not think it would sound much like a poem for a native speaking English. Nevertheless it should allow you to understand the quotation:

I have not got a girl who could taste me.
Yes indeed, a nurse ! healing passion
for art, reserving her kisses
only for the dying men,
for people at the and of the line.

Two tricks. If you need to use a circumflex accent (the upside down v), try this:

alt + 0195 = Â
alt + 0226 = â
alt + 0202 = Ê
alt + 0234 = ê
alt + 0206 = Î
alt + 0238 = î
alt + 0212 = Ô
alt + 0244 = ô
alt + 0219 = Û
alt + 0251 = û ;

furthermore

alt + 0199 = Ç
alt + 0231 = ç

In order to format your text, use the buttons above, (B, i, U etc.)

Cheers.

[candi]

Bonjour Michka,

Thank you for the translation, the diacritic tricks and for the name of this ^, circumflex.

You're right, the literal translation doesn't sound much like poetry in Eglish, but I appreciate you doing it for me.

The following is what a French speaker, trying to improve his English, on another site helped me come up with. Do you think this could be a possible translation, taking into consideration poetic license and French idioms:

“I do not know a young girl who would appreciate me. Ah, yes, a nurse ! A nurse who only gives her kisses to the dying, at death's door, for the love of her art.”

Does this sound like a possibility to you ? Thank you again for your help and kindness.

ciao,
candi

[michka]

“I do not know a young girl who would appreciate me. Ah, yes, a nurse ! A nurse who only gives her kisses to the dying, at death's door, for the love of her art.”

This translation sounds more singing than mine. Some choices, like "I do not know..." instead of "I have not got..." are really much better. "At death's door", in this context, is a very good translation for "in extremis". Yet there is still a couple of details, I am doubtful about:


1) goûter:

this verb has many meanings (including of course "having a taste for someone/something, approving, appreciating"), nevertheless it comes from a very concrete noun, le goût, which is one of the five senses (taste).

When you eat something that you have not ever eaten before, or when a cook checks the taste of a dish, you use in French the verb "goûter". That means that you let in your mouth just a little part of the dish. To me it seems to be connected to the following image in the poem: the nurse's kiss.

I cannot perceive this tie between 'appreciate' (which translates a part of the idea) and 'kiss', although this may depend on some miss in my English knowledge. You should be able to find an English verb which includes the same meanings of "goûter".



2) l'amour de l'art :

in the translation you are quoting "love of art" seems to be the motive of the nurse's behaviour, or even the reason of dying being at death's door.

I think that "love of art" is the poet's desease (that's why he needs a nurse). This is the reason why I had chosen "passion" instead of "love". That comes from the Latin word 'passio, passionis', which could be translated by 'suffering' (e.g. Passio Christi). I meant to amalgamate the ancient and the modern meaning.

The young girl (the nurse) would be a way to refer to death or death's peace: she only kisses the dying. That is a topos; it reminds me one of Heinrich Heine's best poems, "Morphine", where two young boys epitomize Slumber and Death; the poet is ill and suffering, Slumber embraces him and gives him rest from time to time, yet Heine longs for Death's embrace, which will set him free from pain, for eternity.

Without reading the full text, I cannot be sure that my interpretation is correct. The comma position lets me think so: ...pour l'amour de l'art, ne donnant ses baisers... Unluckily I cannot find the poem online. Anyhow Lawrence Durrell's book may contain elements which could help you in making the choice.