Jun 5, 2021 15:18
2 yrs ago
58 viewers *
French term
United Kingdom
MA French and Arabic Translator
Native in: English 
Works in: Arabic to English, French to English
ils se me haut
French to English
Other
Poetry & Literature
Private Lives (play by Noël Coward)
From this passage:
'Pardon madame - Ça n'est pas ma faute, mais si madame n'avait pas laissé son piano ouvert, je ne me serai pas cogné dedans. Pardon [They all look at Louise] Oh! Puis qu'ils se me haut à table qu'ils boivent leurs café et qu'ils me fichent la paix!'
'Pardon madame - Ça n'est pas ma faute, mais si madame n'avait pas laissé son piano ouvert, je ne me serai pas cogné dedans. Pardon [They all look at Louise] Oh! Puis qu'ils se me haut à table qu'ils boivent leurs café et qu'ils me fichent la paix!'
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +1 | almost certainly a historical mistake |
Mpoma
|
| 4 | they get me off (the table) |
MassimoA
|
| 2 | they appear high to me |
Conor McAuley
|
Proposed translations
+1
4 hrs
Selected
almost certainly a historical mistake
Had a look around and this discussion ( https://ask.metafilter.com/132546/What-do-these-French-lines... ) has the same question and bafflement. And they appear to be from someone reading the actual script.
So it may possibly be a mistake by Coward himself, but much more likely to be one by the publisher.
As others have said, it is very likely that it is meant to be "qu'ils se mettent à table". Intriguingly, though, there may be no way to find out, short of getting hold of Coward's original manuscript!
So it may possibly be a mistake by Coward himself, but much more likely to be one by the publisher.
As others have said, it is very likely that it is meant to be "qu'ils se mettent à table". Intriguingly, though, there may be no way to find out, short of getting hold of Coward's original manuscript!
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
7 mins
Conor McAuley
France
France
Native in English
France
Excellence, Expertise & Experience
Native in: English (Variants: Wales / Welsh, UK, Scottish, Irish, British)
Works in: French to English, English
Related KudoZ points
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30
French term (edited):
ils me semblent haut
they appear high to me
Type / OCR problem / deliberate issue created in a test translation.
Only one internet search match.
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Note added at 27 mins (2021-06-05 15:45:44 GMT)
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Verity, in that case it looks like your only option is to get a copy of the play in French, or send out a shout out for one (here, on social networks, etc.).
Any decent-sized French university library should have a copy.
Only one internet search match.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 27 mins (2021-06-05 15:45:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Verity, in that case it looks like your only option is to get a copy of the play in French, or send out a shout out for one (here, on social networks, etc.).
Any decent-sized French university library should have a copy.
Note from asker:
| This is not a test translation - it's a published text. I'm wondering if it's a typo and hould be semble? And then it would be something like 'they seem high and mighty to me' |
1 day 18 hrs
they get me off (the table)
The sense is that of an exclusion of the person from the group.
Discussion
The curious thing is, the lines mentioned in the question do not appear in the versions we can find online...
There is a poor OCR copy of the play available, that could be corrected fairly easily by a fan.
I searched, randomly, for "The Playboy of the Western World" and "Death of a Salesman", and got both.
I suppose Coward died fairly recently and he was a bit niche.
Why? It won't be out of copyright for many years yet: Coward died in 1973, and it is now an absurd 70 years after an author's death before copyright expires (in France and UK... : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_l... - from which we see that if Coward had been Yemeni, we could all by now do want we want with his texts).
http://yacht.a7sharp9.com/DV/Potter/Posters/Rickman/pl-act3....
In other words, in the "VO" she speaks in French.
It's amazing that the text of the play isn't available on the internet, apart from one poor OCRed document. (See Katarina's link.)
Conclusion: my bet is that it's a translation test, a nasty trap laid.
https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.210130/2015.210...
https://ask.metafilter.com/132546/What-do-these-French-lines...