Translation difficulties

Hello all :)

I am having some difficulty translating the following:

"Le monde de nos ancêtres était tout sauf paisible, et jamais les Français ne furent aussi bien protégés dans leur personne. Ils ont l’impression du contraire et les médias n’y sont pas étrangers. Nos parents n’avaient connaissance que de la violence proche, celle de leur ville, voire du pays, alors que la télévision montre, dans chaque foyer, celle du monde entier."

I would translate it like this:

"The world of our ancestors was anything but peaceful, and never have the French been so ill-protected in their persons; however, they were under the opposite impression, the media being no stranger to this. Our parents' knowledge was limited to local violence, that of their village and occasionally their country, while the television showed, in every home, the violence of the whole world."

Does this seem correct? I feel that I must be missing something because I am not sure why our parents knowledge was limited to local incidences if the television was showing the opposite... any help would be appreciated!

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on February 27, 2013 at 1:49am

Yes I am having difficulty too!

I can find one or two mistakes in your translation (if I am right) but the overall sense still escapes me .

I can't work out who it is who is"they" who are under this "opposite impression".Is it previous generations, present populations or commentators?

"The world of our ancestors was anything but peaceful, and never have the French been so ill well-protected in their persons; however, they were under the opposite impression, the media being no stranger to this. Our parents' knowledge was limited to local violence, that of their village and occasionally their country, while the television showed shows , in every home, the violence of the whole world."

I am familiar with this argument all the same.Levels of violence are said to have diminished over the past centuries and are said to still be in continuous decline.

But I still can't get these sentences to read like I would like them to.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by littleredwagon on February 27, 2013 at 1:58am

It is difficult! I think because mostly the writer switches from talking about the past to the present without making it explicit. Maybe he speaks of the present when he says "jamais les Français ne furent aussi bien protégés dans leur personne. Ils ont l’impression du contraire et les médias n’y sont pas étrangers" and again "alors que (maintenant?) la télévision montre, dans chaque foyer, celle du monde entier."

But thank you for your help!

▶ Reply

EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on February 27, 2013 at 2:11am

Yes maybe it is possible to use "furent" as an alternative to the perfect tense?

"jamais les Français ne furent ="jamais les Français n'ont été...." ?-that is a tense with its feet in both past and present!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chantal Savignat on February 27, 2013 at 8:14am

I gonna try to help you.

"Le monde de nos ancêtres était tout sauf paisible" => he speaks of the past, the tense is "imparfait"

et jamais les Français ne furent aussi bien protégés dans leur personne.=> he speaks of the present with the way "jamais" (= "never") + a past tense + the comparative "aussi" which means "never in the past" in comparison (with the comparative) with now.

And Yes "jamais les Français ne furent ="jamais les Français n'ont été...." and means that never in the past French were as protected as now. The two tenses can be used. (and I think that most people would have used "n'ont été", "ne furent" is a formal way)

Ils ont l’impression du contraire et les médias n’y sont pas étrangers.=> present (look at the tense=present)

"Nos parents n’avaient connaissance que de la violence proche, celle de leur ville, voire du pays"=> past (the tense=imparfait)

alors que la télévision montre, dans chaque foyer, celle du monde entier.=> present (the tense = present)

And the last translation, George's one seems to have the good idea to me if I try to understand and translate English => French. ;-)