Aug 22, 2012 01:57
11 yrs ago
3 viewers *
English term

backwater

English to French Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
A light mist haunts the five storey block of flats in a nest of other similar blocks. The suburban sprawl of a Cardiff backwater.
Change log

Aug 22, 2012 08:44: Kévin Bernier changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"

Aug 22, 2012 11:11: Stéphanie Soudais changed "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Other" , "Field (specific)" from "Cinema, Film, TV, Drama" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters" , "Field (write-in)" from "Expression" to "(none)"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (3): FX Fraipont (X), Tristan Jimenez, Kévin Bernier

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Proposed translations

+2
7 hrs
Selected

au fin fond de

Je pense qu'on peut tourner différemment, par exemple :
"au fin fond d'une banlieue de Cardiff."
Sinon, "coin perdu de Cardiff" permet d'exprimer l'aspect "reculé" sans impliquer qu'il s'agit d'un village, comme le ferait "trou".
Peer comment(s):

agree Jocelyne Cuenin
2 hrs
Merci Petitavoine
agree Marion Feildel (X) : j'aime bien "coin perdu"
4 hrs
Merci Marion
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Merci"
-1
22 mins

trou perdu

I'm not a native speaker of French, but as a native speaker of English, I understand "backwater" here to mean a poor area, and according to the Collins Robert, the French expression for that sense of backwater is "trou perdu".
Peer comment(s):

agree FX Fraipont (X) : http://dicmortimer.wordpress.com/2011/10/ 27 Oct 2011 – " Cardiff ..... as the capital of a disparaged backwater where music-biz Svengalis never ..... and gave birth to the deadly-dull suburban sprawl of North Cardiff"
4 hrs
agree Tony M
4 hrs
disagree Daryo : A "suburban sprawl" (i.e. near a town) is hardly a "trou perdu", a small village lost in the middle of nowhere. "Backwater" here is more used for the absence of anything exciting happening; from this sample I can't detect any pejorative tone
4 hrs
neutral Sandra Mouton : Oui pour "perdu" mais non pour "trou" qui évoque directement un village en rase campagne
6 hrs
disagree Jocelyne Cuenin : pour moi, trou perdu ne marche pas pour la banlieue
9 hrs
disagree Pascal ROY : I think Petitqvoine is right
1 day 7 hrs
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-2
2 hrs

village tranquille

From my dictionary. The context of your text sounds "positive" so "village tranquille" is a positive expression, as opposed to "trou perdu" which is colloquial and pejorative.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Daryo : "the five storey block of flats in a nest of other similar blocks" = "village tranquille"? more like a "bloc de HLM", although not necessarily meant in a pejorative way, I agree on that.
2 hrs
disagree Tony M : Since Cardiff is a big city, the description here is unlikely to be of a 'village', esp. as Daryo says, with these blocks of flats.
2 hrs
disagree AllegroTrans : This is about a dingy part of a city, certainly not a tranquil village, your dictionary evidently cannot deal with this....but then dicos are for "guidance only"
13 hrs
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-1
6 hrs

Province reculée

"L'expansion urbaine d'une province reculée de Cardiff."
Peer comment(s):

disagree Sandra Mouton : "Province", pour moi, fait référence à une région entière loin de la capitale d'un pays. Ici, on ne peut pas parler de région et Cardiff est la capitale du Pays de Galles/On ne peut pas parler de région entière pour un quartier d'une capitale.
1 hr
En Anglais, oui. En Français non. C'est très commun de dire "province" simplement pour désigner une région, qu'elle soit à la campagne ou pas.
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10 hrs

hors des sentiers battus

une banlieue de Cardiff .....
Peer comment(s):

neutral Jocelyne Cuenin : cette expression prête à confusion
18 hrs
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10 hrs

quartier déshérité

C'est ce que je comprends de la phrase, expression courante en français, exemples ci-joints pour juger de l'ambiance
Peer comment(s):

neutral Jocelyne Cuenin : overtranslating?
18 hrs
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Reference comments

10 hrs
Reference:

Another slant:

While British Columbia boomed, this coast remained a working-class backwater: an affordable haven for artists and retirees, and a playground for those who love the wild outdoors, whether on a mountain bike or kayak, or clad [...]
imperialoil.com
Malgré l'essor de celle-ci, la côte est demeurée un petit coin tranquille réservé à la classe ouvrière, un refuge abordable pour les artistes et les retraités et un terrain de jeux ceux qui aiment la nature sauvage.
imperialoil.com


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Note added at 10 heures (2012-08-22 12:08:32 GMT)
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And a definition: A place or situation regarded as isolated, stagnant, or backward

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Note added at 10 heures (2012-08-22 12:25:39 GMT)
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http://dicmortimer.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/three-rivers/
interesting background
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1 day 12 hrs
Reference:

Urban backwater

I can't offer a translation, but this article talks of this type of area:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19490513&id=w...

using such words as:
quiet
dull as ditchwater
cursed with respectability

I don't think it's necessarily a deprived area, although youngsters living in these areas often feel deprived. It's just so boring, forgotten. Like the backwater of a river, it never sees mainstream life, there's nothing new, nothing exciting - just more of the same.
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