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Re: A question of translation

From: Ralf Tauchmann <ralf.tauchmann~at~t-online.de>
Date: 10 May 2011 06:20 GMT
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>


"Alex Kirstukas" <infernalnonsense~at~yahoo.com> schrieb:
> "s'ils connaissaient le méridien du globe sur
> lequel le midi s'est établi pour la première fois,
> la question serait facilement résolue."

> I had assumed that "sur lequel le midi s'est établi"
> meant simply "on which noon was established,"
> but when I happened, out of curiosity, to feed the
> lecture through Google Translate, this phrase came out
> "on which lunch was prepared."

Dear Alex,

a nice machine mismatch.

By the way, the German word for "meridian" is "Mittagslinie" ("noon line",
literally "mid-day line"). In German, a hungry stomach might well
understand "Mittagslinie" as "lunch line"...

As to the English translation, I'm wondering whether one should replace the
passive voice "on which noon was established" by an intransitive verb (like
"the sun rises"), because Jules Verne uses "se lever" and "s'établir" for
the sun's very first "path" in the sky... and this makes the "sun" a
"self-going system" despite "creation" (so to say : a self-going system
after a creational kick-off).

May be:

"on which noon came to be"
"on which noon established itself"
"on which the sun reached noon"

Just a spontaneous remark, because the passive voice always suggests an
external actor -- although the answer is left open : "noon was established
/ lunch was prepared..." -- "by whom"...

Kind regards,
  
Ralf Tauchmann
Gerhart-Hauptmann-Str. 23
01445 RADEBEUL

Tel: +49-351-8336141
Fax: +49-322-29811799
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eMail: ralf.tauchmann~at~t-online.de
Internet: http://tauchmann.ratau.de
Received on Tue 10 May 2011 - 10:01:38 IDT

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