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Correct translation of some sentences from the short story 'Les Pêches'

I have found the following sentences from Andre Theuriet's short story 'Les Pêches' difficult to translate with certainty. I am giving the original text in French followed by my best attempt at a translation. Can anyone tell me where my translation may be in error?

'On y est très positif, on ne voit guère dans le mariage qu'une bonne affaire et on y prend volontiers pour règle que "si le mari apporte à déjueuner, la femme doit apporter le dîner." Ma femme et moi, nous avions à peine à nous deux de quoi souper.'

They were quite convinced that one should only see marriage as good business and accepted quite happily the rule that "if the husband brings the lunch, the wife should bring the dinner." My wife and I barely had enough for the two of us to eat.

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I think that it a good translation.

I was a bit stumped by the two uses of "on " at the beginning.

My first inclination was to take the first "on" in a very general way and the phrase "'On y est très positif" to mean "it is quite clear" whereas the second "on" I took to stand for the kind of person in the situation described.

So I was going to say something along the lines of "Quite clearly they saw marriage as scarcely (you have translated "guère" as "only" -I think "guère...que" may be a bit stronger) other than...

I am not sure if you or myself are right..

I appreciate that the French is original but I wonder if "nous n'avions à peine à nous deux de quoi souper.' would have been correct (also).

hello,

maybe i can help you, not in translation, but in meaning.

"On" : the three "on" in the first phrase have the same meaning : it's a very very général way used when the author want to describe what is generally done where he lives (in his society)  but not just to describe it,  it's a little condescending. When a phrase is wrote as this, we know that in the  end of the phrase the author will give his point of view or his situation. if  i would have to give the word to replace the three "on" in this phrase, i would write "Ces messieurs" (i don't know how to translate)

it's a sustained "on" in a phrase with sustained language.

nous n'avions à peine à nous deux de quoi souper : no, it's not correct, because of the word "à peine".

the correct phrase would have been "nous n'avions à nous deux que de quoi souper" and the meaning is a little different.

"nous avions à peine ..." we feel that it's difficult for the author to have the minimum. And this felling is stronger because of the words "déjeuner" "diner" and "souper".  "déjeuner" and "diner" give a felling of "good meal" but "souper" give a feeling of "soupe" which is a lighter meal.

"nous n'avions que ..." the felling is more that they have not a lot but enough.

thanks.My reasoning was that ne....à peine  could be another way of saying ne....guère.

But I see now that  that was  wrong (I was also wrong about  the first "on " being different to the other cases of "on" )

"ne" is never used with "à peine", it's not wrong if we add "qu' " (je ne veux qu'à peine de ces gateaux), but it's not ... nice (beautiful ?) in ears.

"à peine" and "ne ...guère" are almost synonyms.  the meaning is very very close. but there is 2 little différences :

vocabulary : "ne ... guère" is more sustained (i don't know if you use this word sustained=literary) and used in literature. it's an old way not used commonly. "à peine" is commonly used in modern french even in oral language.

meaning :

"à peine" = it's very difficult to get the objective but it's possible. "je peux à peine marcher" = it's very very difficult to walk but i can walk.

"ne ... guère" = not a lot (or not many?) but so little (so few ?) that it's almost impossible to get the objective. "Je ne peux guère marcher" = it's impossible to walk

For "On", it is very difficult in this phrase to understand the way, in fact, there are 2 things that help to understand. 1) the literary way 2) the end (when he says that his wife and he don't have a lot to eat). And even like that, when i read again, i can hesitate.

The way I have seen 'à piene' translated into English is 'hardly'. Thus 'je peux à piene marcher' would be translated 'I can hardly walk', which means as you indicated that it is very difficult to walk, but I can just manage to do it.

Your discussion of the use of 'on' makes sense in the context of this story. The author is discussing the fact that most of his colleagues thought he had been foolish to marry a poor woman because it wasn't 'une bonne affaire'. He is conveying the idea that his bourgeois colleagues are rigid, class conscious, and that they willingly accept the conventions of a rather superficial society.

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