Follow

french translating 

Paragraph 2 of Du Cote De Chez Swann
I tenderly lay my cheeks against the lovely cheeks of the pillow which was full and fresh like the cheeks of our childhood. I struck a match to check my watch. Midnight soon. In the moment where a sick man, who had been obliged to leave on a journey and has gone to sleep in an unfamiliar hotel, is awoken by a spasm, he rejoices when he catches sight of a ray of daylight under the door. What a joy, it is already morning! In a moment, the servants will be getting up, he can ring, and one will come to help him. the expectation of relief gives him the courage to suffer. He hears footsteps; they draw closer, then move away. And the ray of daylight which was under the door has disappeared. It is midnight; someone came to extinguish the gas; the last servant left and he will remain nearly the whole night to suffer without remedy.

· · Web · 1 · 0 · 0

french translating 

I really like this paragraph - it was a joy to translate, has a few plays on words in the original french (joues for cheek is repeated, bonheur is said by the sick man but is also how the narrator describes his time of going to sleep - bonne heur)
also captures very nicely a very specific sort of *shock* at waking up and realizing something has gone wrong, but only a few moments too late

Sign in to participate in the conversation
masto.anarch.cc

A small congregation of exiles.