Completed Translation
Welcome, budding polyglot! I hope you enjoyed this challenge as much as I did. Having stepped away from translation some time ago, I forgot how fun it can be to do for its own sake rather than to learn and retain something new. This document was written by a priest in the year 1900, there is certainly some weird language throughout, but with my trusty dictionary in hand, I think I was able to do his eloquent work some justice.
First I will post my full translation and then I will post it again with some reasoning behind why I chose what I did. The hope being that you will be able to do the exercise yourself and, at the same time, learn something with me through the act of doing. If you made a mistake, do not erase it. It is always important to see and remember why we thought the way we did. As this series progresses you will be able to go back to your other attempts and perhaps beautify them even more than I could! Though I think it will take some time to get to that point.
The French:
“Me voici dans le district Sud-Kona, partageant les travaux du R.P. Marie-Victor Poirier, qui garde la partie Nord.”
“Vers le Sud, ma mission avoisine celle du P. Nicaise Ruault, missionnaire doublement vénérable, et par l'âge et par sa qualité de supérieur de toute l'île Hawaï.”
“De sa résidence principale Waiohinu à ma station de Honaunau, il y a une quarantaine de milles anglais (65 kil.), qu’il faut franchir sur les coulées de lave durcie, vestiges des éruptions volcaniques, tantôt en plein soleil, tantôt par une pluie battante, tantôt par un vent brûlant.”
The English:
“I find myself in the district of South-Kona, sharing the works of Reverend Priest Marie-Victor Poirier, who oversees the northern region. Toward the south, my mission coincides with that of Father Nicaise Ruault, a missionary doubly venerable, by his age as by his quality, superior across the islands of Hawaii. From his principal residence in Waiohinu to my station of Honaunau, there is about 40 miles (65km), that must be traversed atop rivers of hardened lava, vestiges of volcanic eruptions, sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in battering rains, sometimes in scorching winds.”
The Breakdown:
One of the most important parts of translation is thinking of it as an art. Whenever things are being written they, generally, are being written for a reason. Our Reverend Father did not include this artistic language for no reason at all. It is worth taking the time to find the most elegant way to say things, as it is likely what he would have done and did.
“I find myself in the district of South-Kona, sharing the works of Reverend Priest Marie-Victor Poirier, who oversees the northern region.”
This portion is straight forward. Simple description of where he is and what he is doing. Really, this is almost a direct translation, but sometimes direct translations do work, just not often.
“Toward the south, my mission coincided with that of Father Nicaise Ruault, a missionary doubly venerable, by his age as by his quality, superior across the islands of Hawaii.”
Here, on the other hand, things get a bit complicated.
One of the struggles of translation is you often see words that are not frequently used. For “avoisiner” I knew what it meant from the context and other French knowledge:
voisin = neighbor, adding er turns it into a verb and ‘a’ means to so the verb should mean “to neighbor”
Well, in this context that wouldn’t make much sense, so what is the context? Two priests on similar missions in Hawaii. Therefore I chose to use the word “coincide” as the missions “avoisiner” one another, they neighbor or to border on or verge on, they coincide with one another. They share a mission, in this case, to spread the word of God.
Of all the text I read and translated for this, one section gave me trouble and it was a mere half of a sentence.
“…doublement vénérable, et par l'âge et par sa qualité de supérieur de toute l'île Hawaï.”
The beginning is not too complex, doubly venerable, ezpz (easy peasy for the uninitiated). When we see “et…et…et” in French, it means in addition to, but there is no need to write “and” in for this. So, “by his age as by his…” this is where things get tough. I understand the sentiment, but finding a way to say it without changing too many words or the context altogether was not easy.
I landed on “as by his quality, superior across the islands of Hawaii” and it took lots of banging my head against a wall to get there. The meaning behind what he is saying is that the man has a superior quality [of character] out of all of Hawaii. However, he did not write that; and so I had to find another way. I think I settled in a great place and that the sentiment is clearly conveyed. The direct translation would be “his superior quality of all of the island of Hawaii.” which sounds clunky. As we will see in the next sentence, the author of this document was an eloquent writer and I doubt he would have been satisfied with something any less than artistic in translating his writing.
In this next portion we see this in action:
“De sa résidence principale Waiohinu à ma station de Honaunau, il y a une quarantaine de milles anglais (65 kil.), qu’il faut franchir sur les coulées de lave durcie, vestiges des éruptions volcaniques, tantôt en plein soleil, tantôt par une pluie battante, tantôt par un vent brûlant.”
“From his principal residence in Waiohinu to my station of Honaunau, there is about 40 miles (65km), that must be traversed on rivers of hardened lava, vestiges of volcanic eruptions, sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in battering rains, sometimes in scorching wind”
Again, he takes it easy on us getting started, “From his principal residence in Waiohinu to my station of Honaunau, there is about 40 miles (65km)” just location and some more information to illustrate distance. Then he brings it with the artistic language and I did my best to do him justice here: “that must be traversed atop rivers of hardened lava” falloir is a difficult verb to translate as it can mean a couple different things. In this context it means something that must be done, so what must be done? “franchir sur les coulées de lave durcie” or,
to get over or cross. And here is where the art comes in a bit. Yes, we can say “that must be crossed across rivers of hardened lava” if that’s what you got, great! You 100% are correct. However, as I was saying before, there are good, better, and best ways to say things. Personally, I find the flow of “that must be traversed atop rivers of hardened lava” to be better, but this is partially subjective. There are times when one way is objectively better, but many times it is up to you and how you want to say things.
Finally, we have another example of the French using repetition to change the meanings of words. As with et…et…et, tantôt…tantôt…tantôt, does not mean “soon…soon…soon” it means sometimes. In this case our author is trying to depict for us how interminable this journey felt. Crossing these lava flows with sunshine beaming down, rain battering the volcanic remnants around him, and blazing winds carrying the heat of the lava with them. So here we do not change anything, just attempt to make it sound as eloquent as he did. “…sometimes in sunshine, sometimes in battering rains, sometimes in scorching wind”.
That’s all for this one! I really enjoyed this and I think it is a good exercise for anyone learning French to do. When working with my personal clients I always ask that they translate some of the things they are reading into their target language every single day. Even a single paragraph, as we have just seen, can provide some incredible insight. The further along you are in your language acquisition journey, the more powerful of a tool this will be as you will constantly be introduced to new words and concepts. There is a stark difference, in most languages, between what is written and what is said. That is why I am always telling people to read, it will pay off in the long run in the shape of a larger vocabulary, a more fluid recall, and more ways to diversify your stimuli.
As I said in the previous post, this was just a first round. Starting 3/14 this is something we will be doing weekly, in different languages, for our paid subscribers. Some of these posts will include the opportunity to follow my journey as I work to perfect my German through translating some German texts. I am certain I will make many mistakes and I am very much looking forward to it!
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Becoming bilingual is difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So go do difficult things and become great. Here I’ve given you some of the tools, but in the end, there is no comprehensive guide, no tips or tricks to carry anyone across the finish line. Language acquisition requires time, effort, and consistency. That said, it is something that anyone of any age is more than capable of accomplishing. I’ll be here rooting for you and watching your progress.
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