Apr 25, 2015 17:11
9 yrs ago
French term
India
Native in: Bengali (Variant: Indian) 
Works in: English to French, French to English, Bengali to English
la sourde violence
French to English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Nouvelles
This is from a famous short story by Marguerite Yourcenar, Le sourir de Marko.
I don't have access to the original English translation. Actually I'm translating it in a local language. I would like to know what "Sourd" implies here.
If you can give me some translations in English, I may try to grasp its nuance and render it in local languge.
Here is the line :
Déjà, les formes humbles et ramassées des maisons, la franchise salubre du paysage étaient slaves, mais la sourde violence des couleurs, la fierté nue du ciel faisaient encore songer à l’Orient et à l’Islam. -- M. Y.
I don't have access to the original English translation. Actually I'm translating it in a local language. I would like to know what "Sourd" implies here.
If you can give me some translations in English, I may try to grasp its nuance and render it in local languge.
Here is the line :
Déjà, les formes humbles et ramassées des maisons, la franchise salubre du paysage étaient slaves, mais la sourde violence des couleurs, la fierté nue du ciel faisaient encore songer à l’Orient et à l’Islam. -- M. Y.
Proposed translations
(English)
Proposed translations
+6
24 mins
Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Specializes in field
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
80
Selected
the muted/suppressed violence
it's hard to know exactly what is meant here, but my feeling is that it is along these lines
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
philgoddard
25 mins
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thanks Phil!
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| agree |
Ben Lenthall
2 hrs
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thanks telletubby!
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| agree |
BrigitteHilgner
12 hrs
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thanks Brigitte!
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| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: muted, surpressed is potentially more politically charged, unless that is the intention.
15 hrs
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I agree with you, it is, and that's what I'm not sure about. Yourcenar's writing is very compressed, economical…, so could be squeezing in quite a lot of meaning/s
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| agree |
B D Finch
17 hrs
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thanks Barbara!
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| disagree |
YorickJenkins
: Supressed/muted implies an agency doing the supressing or muting but there is nothing in the French to indicate such an agency.
22 hrs
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colours are muted or subdued without having to be quashed by an outside agency; they just are that way
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| agree |
Wendy Streitparth
: Definitely - with a slight preference for muted.
22 hrs
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thanks Wendy :)
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| agree |
Florentina Constantin
4 days
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thanks Florentina!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
38 mins
Verginia Ophof
Belize
Belize
Native in English
Specializes in field
Belize
Near Native Proficiency in Source langua
Native in: English
Works in: Portuguese to English, Dutch to English, French to English
Related KudoZ points
:
16
the subdued/muted violence
suggestion
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Marian Vieyra
: Either sounds good.
12 hrs
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Thank you Marian !
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| disagree |
YorickJenkins
: I disagree-if it is muted or supressed who or what is doing the muting or supressing?
22 hrs
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41 mins
Katarina Peters
Canada
Canada
Native in English
Specializes in field
Canada
Accuracy and A1 presentation
Native in: Hungarian , English (Variant: US)
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English, Hungarian to English, and 13 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
14
mindless ravage/brutality/rage/barbarity
other possibilities
2 hrs
secret violence
hidden
+2
2 hrs
Estelle Demontrond-Box
Australia
Australia
Native in French
Specializes in field
Australia
Qualified Translator & Published Writer
Native in: French (Variant: Standard-France)
Works in: English to French, French to English, French
Related KudoZ points
:
12
The hidden/underlying violence
Une suggestion
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Marian Vieyra
: Both are also good choices. Lots of options, really.
10 hrs
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Thank you Marian!
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| agree |
katsy
14 hrs
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Thank you Katsy!
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-1
22 hrs
unsounding violence
The style and tone of the French is poetical, hence my suggestion.
Peer comment(s):
| disagree |
Carol Gullidge
: Poetic or otherwise (and I suggest it's the latter), this sounds as though the violence is being "unsounded" (whatever that might mean); cf sounding the horn, blowing your own trumpet//Not Chambers, etc, and Robert gives douteux and mal fondé for unsound
8 mins
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Dictionary definition:not uttered, pronounced, or made to sound.
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11 days
Charlotte Lomax
France
France
Native in English
Specializes in field
France
Translator and Interpreter
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, Italian to English
the smothered violence
In the immediate context you give, the use of the word 'sourde' almost seems to give an impression of sound insulation, and this fits in with the concept of ambivalence that you describe later on: the insulating wall buffering society from allowing anything to move it. 'Smothered' can imply ambient insulation as well as the transitivity of the verb suggesting the presence of human agency.
Reference comments
2 hrs
Reference:
In a book title:
La sourde violence des rêves
K. Sello Duiker
Elsewhere I got to:
Le violet, lui, était une couleur plus inquiétante, fermée, sourde. Il y a de la violence dans le violet, de la menace.
K. Sello Duiker
Elsewhere I got to:
Le violet, lui, était une couleur plus inquiétante, fermée, sourde. Il y a de la violence dans le violet, de la menace.
Note from asker:
| Merci merci M. |
20 hrs
Reference:
More context in case it's useful
La mer, si bleue le matin au large, prenait des teintes sombres à l'intérieur de ce long fjord sinueux bizarrement situé aux abords des Balkans. Déjà, les formes humbles et ramassées des maisons, la franchise salubre du paysage, étaient slaves, mais la sourde violence des couleurs, la fierté nue du ciel, faisaient encore songer à l'Orient et à l'Islam (11).
...
Le lecteur affronte l'ambivalence, celle des situations (Achille déguisé en
femme) et celle du style (<<Le sang collait, comme du fard, aux joues
méconnaissables des cadavres; Hélène peignait sa bouche de vampire
d'un fard qui faisait penser à du sang»). Tout donne à penser que le contact avec le crucifiant soleil de la Grèce, avec un univers d'ombres et de lumières tranchées, de police secrète et de plage, a conféré au livre tout ce qu'il a de sourde violence.
1 - de l'Université libre de Bruxelles
digistore.bib.ulb.ac.be/2011/DL2503255_1988_3_4_000.pdf
conféré au livre tout ce qu'il a de sourde violence. Avant d'aborder la ...... 848-859. * «Le sourire de Marko», Les Nouvelles Littéraires, nov. 1936, pp. 1-2.
...
Le lecteur affronte l'ambivalence, celle des situations (Achille déguisé en
femme) et celle du style (<<Le sang collait, comme du fard, aux joues
méconnaissables des cadavres; Hélène peignait sa bouche de vampire
d'un fard qui faisait penser à du sang»). Tout donne à penser que le contact avec le crucifiant soleil de la Grèce, avec un univers d'ombres et de lumières tranchées, de police secrète et de plage, a conféré au livre tout ce qu'il a de sourde violence.
1 - de l'Université libre de Bruxelles
digistore.bib.ulb.ac.be/2011/DL2503255_1988_3_4_000.pdf
conféré au livre tout ce qu'il a de sourde violence. Avant d'aborder la ...... 848-859. * «Le sourire de Marko», Les Nouvelles Littéraires, nov. 1936, pp. 1-2.
Discussion