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French to English: L'éditorial de Claude Imbert - Les mots pour dire
Source text - French « La langue est le signe principal d'une nationalité » et devient l'âme même de la Nation (Michelet). C'est à ce lien charnel et spirituel entre le Verbe et le Pays que l'on pense aujourd'hui que la Nation se recroqueville, se demande qui elle est, ce qu'elle est, troublée par tous les ailleurs des temps nouveaux, par les immigrés qui en viennent, les délocalisés qui y vont, la mondialisation qui s'impose, l'Europe qui s'interpose... Vous gémissez sur les déchirures du lien social, vous voudriez un je-ne-sais-quoi de commun, de fraternel et qui vous fasse, en dépit de tout, « français », ne cherchez pas : c'est la langue, chef-d'oeuvre inconscient de la conscience nationale...
Un chef-d'oeuvre en péril. Sans magnifier le passé, sans oublier qu'il y a moins d'un siècle la langue française devait cohabiter dans nos campagnes avec les bastions breton, alsacien, provençal, corse, basque, on n'éludera pas l'évidence : la langue française courante, la langue usuelle, populaire, s'appauvrit et se dégrade. Elle n'est plus enseignée dans ses fondements. Quant à la langue plus élitaire, celle qui donne à la Littérature ses bonheurs, à la Science ses définitions, au Droit sa clarté, cette langue-là est, elle-même, exsangue, depuis la grande saignée des humanités. C'est un sinistre considérable dans la Maison France. Ses conséquences, au fil du temps, sur l'humeur du pays, sur l'esprit critique, le civisme, la transmission des valeurs pérennes d'une civilisation, sur l'idée nationale, sur le barrage à la barbarie apparaissent, à chaque décennie, plus accablantes.
Editorial de Claude Imbert, Le Point 08/02/07
Translation - English It was historian Jules Michelet who said that “language is the principal symbol of a nationality” and becomes the very soul of a nation. Today, we envisage France clinging on to this physical and spiritual link between the country and its verse, as she questions who and what she really is, ever troubled by the foreign influences of modern times: the immigrants that come, the French businesses that go, an interfering Europe and encroaching globalisation. The people bemoan the divisions in society and would like a certain brotherly “je-ne-sais-quoi” in common, which, in spite of everything, would make them all “French”. Look no further than the language!
But it’s a masterpiece in peril. Without glorifying the past, or forgetting that less than a century ago, the French language had to share the countryside with Breton, Alsatian, Provençal, Corsican and Basque strongholds, the evidence is inescapable: modern, everyday, popular French is deteriorating and becoming impoverished as its fundamentals are no longer taught. Even refined French, the language which makes literature joyful, gives science its precision and law its clarity is now battered and beaten, drained of its lifeblood by the humanities. It is a quite considerable loss in “la Maison France.” The consequences this has on the country’s morale, its critical and civic spirit and the transmission of its traditional civilised values, as well as on the public consciousness in the continued defence against barbarism, appear to be more and more overwhelming with each decade that passes.
Editorial Comment by Claude Imbert, Le Point 08/02/07
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Bachelor's degree - University of York
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Years of experience: 15. Registered at ProZ.com: Sep 2008.
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I am a young translator offering both French and Italian into English. I have qualifications in both languages and am currently studying for my Translation Diploma. I have lived and worked for a year in both France and Italy and have experience in translation in a variety of fields.
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