Pat, my gentle and tolerant French teacher, is not well and lessons have been on hold for a couple of months. I sent flowers and a card but what I owe her is beyond rubies. I opted for something regular in an envelope carrying a stamp. Pat has a laptop but doesn’t warm to electrons.What to say? I lead a self-centred and dull life so there’s nothing there. Anecdotes describing my foreign-language experiences, mostly disastrous, were a goer but lacked a direct link with Pat herself.
Our lessons have lasted 17 years and I’ve translated thirty French novels with some rigour. I decided to re-visit this process I'd shared with Pat. Dig up the novels we trawled through, quote extracts, discuss their quality as stories.
The first novel I chose - Bienvenue parmi nous (Holder) - worked well. Gradually the story became clear and I wrote to Pat:
"Is it all coming back? Did it ever go away? You will remember Taillandier buys an expensive shotgun with which to reflexive himself and keeps it in the boot of the car. It was Raymond Chandler who said a gun mentioned on the first page must go off before the last page. ... if I remember correctly there was ultimate disappointment in that this gun didn’t go off. ... Was this a happy revival or not?"
La Lama Bleu (Jacques Lanzman)was another matter. It takes place in Mexico, I don’t remember Mexico. I don’t recall the pretentious mini-foreword. On page 25 geographico-théologiques developments sound ominous and obscure. The summary on the cover means nothing. I turn my review into a joke which Brian, Pat's husband, says she reads avidly.
OK for now. But suppose I've forgotten the next book I dig up? Must I read it all again?
I'm confused. Does the red dot denote the beginning of the excerpts? And where do the excerpts end? I was a little surprised when I encountered the P.S. describing Pat in what I thought were excerpts from a letter to her.
ReplyDeleteMikeM: Trying to use extracts from the letter I sent Pat was a mistake; the post became incoherent. I have rewritten the second half of the post and it now makes makes sense. My problems, however, remain.
ReplyDeleteNote. "reflexive himself" is a private joke. The French verb for "commit suicide" is se suicider and is thus reflexive - literally "suicides oneself". I've always thought that adding the reflexive was unnecessary and have said so, many times.
How lovely to have your own private French teacher! I want one!
ReplyDeleteAnd have you ever thought about doing translations in a serious way? A publishing sort of way? You're a writer--if not, why not? Just call me nosey.
Yrs,
the Ever-curious
Marly: In fact, we are a class of three I omitted my co-student, Beryl. We're all of an age and take French fairly seriously. I have had a private French teacher for the last thirty years or more. Prior to Pat, when I lived in Kingston-upon-Thames, my teacher was exotically named Aida. Then the lessons were split between slightly less rigorous studies of novels and a fiendishly difficult exercise (it sounds so simple) whereby Aida recorded a passage broadcast from France Inter and I transcribed it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to Hereford I briefly acceded to Beryl's recommendation and attended an evening class called Advanced French Conversation. That first adjective turned out to be a fib.
Not much fun in translating for publication, more like drudgery. For me writing is invention.
I do of course have a private singing teacher. The benefits of this, rather than belonging to a choir, are significant. The most important is that you get to sing more interesting music.
"Ever curious" is good. Curiosity was the only real talent I brought to 44.5 years as a journalist.