translation correction please

"Je veux, quant j'en aurais le loisir, tenir note quelque temps des faits que peut connaitre un homme place par les evenements a un bon poste d'ecoute de la resistance. "

I have translated it thus:

"I want, when I should have the leisure, to take note some time of the facts known to a man placed by events in a good position to hear about the resistance."

not sure if i've got it right

isabelle

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Permalink Reply by Frank on August 7, 2009 at 2:25pm

Hello Isabelle,

Your translation looks perfect. Wow, and it wasn't exactly an easy sentence to translate, yet to understand.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on August 7, 2009 at 3:12pm

Frank-- I think it's not actually correct.

The text is probably talking about a "poste d'écoute" in the military sense (usual translations would be "listening post", "listening station").

So I think the meaning is something like:

"I wish, when time allows/would allow, to spend a little time taking note of the information that can be discovered by a man consigned by these events to a well-functioning Resistance listening post."

You could surely get your thesaurus out and find better translations for some of the words, but I think that's the idea.

Incidentally, to the original poster: when you ask for help understanding sentences like this, it's usually worth giving a bit more context-- maybe at least the sentences either side of the one you're having difficulty with.