Bonjour mes chers...

[labellementeuse]

At the moment in French we're studying le Petit Prince or The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This is a wonderful, slim little book, available in french and English (and probably half a dozen other languages), and while on the surface it's quite simple it also has a number of sophisticated second levels and themes.

Friendship and loneliness are big themes. Especially in Chapter XXI, which describes the petit prince's encounter with le renard, a fox. And it's been a while since I've really thanked my friends, on the Net or IRL... so... Instead of saying it myself, using the same old cheesy words tripping over each other in the same old soppy way, i'm going to let Antoine De Saint Exupery do it for me in french, and translate it myself into english.  Since some of it won't make sense in english, I expect they'll be fairly free translations, as any French-speakers reading this will be bound to notice. :) Bold is St-Ex's own words in french, plain is my translations, and the stuff in italics or square brackets is my summary when I had to skip a bit. That is my very own tortured french... please excuse it. :) (Also, I'm sorry about les accents. I couldn't get them all, it would have taken hours... forgive that.)



-Je ne puis pas jouer avec toi, dit le renard. Je ne suis pas apprivoise.
-Qu'est-ce que signifie "apprivoiser"? dit le petit prince...
-C'est un chose trop oublie, dit le renard. Ca signifie "creer des liens."
-Creer des liens?
-bien sur, dit le renard. Tu n'es encore pour moi qu'un petit garcon tout semblable a cent mille petit garcons. Et je n'ai pas besoin de toi. Et tu n'as pas besoin de moi non plus. Je ne suis pour toi qu'un renard semblable a cent mille renards. Mais, si tu m'apprivoises, nous aurons besoin l'un de l'autre. Tu seras pour moi unique au monde. Je serai pour toi unique au monde....

"I cannot play with you," said the fox. "I am not tamed."
"What does that mean, 'tamed'?"
"That is something too much forgotten," replied the fox. "It means 'to create ties.'"
"To create ties?"
"Of course," said the fox. "To me, you are as yet only a little boy much like a hundred thousand other litte boys. And i have no need of you. And yu have no more need of me. To you I am only a fox like a hundred thousand foxes. But, if you tame me, we will need one another. For me, you will be unique in all the world. And I will be to you unique in all the world.

-Tu vois, la-bas, les champs de ble? Je ne mange pas de pain. Le ble pour moi est inutile. Les champs de ble ne me rappellent rien. Et ca, c'est triste! Mais tu as des cheveux couleur d'or. Alors ce sera merveilleux quand tu m'auras apprivoise! Le ble, qui est dore, me fera souvenir de toi. Et j'aimerai le bruit du vent dans le ble...
S'il te plait... apprivoise-moi!

"Do you see the wheat fields over there? I do not eat bread. Wheat is useless to me. Wheat fields don't remind me of anything. And that is sad! But you have golden hair. So it will be miraculous when you you have tamed me! Wheat, when it is ripe, will remind me of you. And I will love the noise of wind in the wheat fields...
Please.. tame me!"

-On ne connait que les choses que l'on apprivoise, dit le renard. Les hommes n'ont plus le temps de rien connaitre. Ils achetent des choses toutes faites chez les marchands. Mais comme il n'existe point de marchands d'amis, les hommes n'ont plus des amis. Si tu veux un ami, approvoise-moi!...

Il faut etre tres patient.  Tu t'assoiras d'abord un peu loin de moi, comme ca, dans l'herbe. Je te regarderai du coin de l'oeil et tu ne diras rien. le langage est source de malentendus. Mais, chaque jour, tu pourras t'asseoir un peu plus pres...

"We only understand the things we tame," said the fox. "Men no longer have time to understand anything. They buy everything pre-made from department stores. But, as there is no such thing as a department store for friends, men no longer have friends. If you want a friend, tame me!
You would have to be very patient. You would sit yourself down a little distance from me, like that. I will watch you from the corner of my eye and you will say nothing. Language is the source of misunderstandings. But, every day, you will be able to sit a little closer..."

-[Revenez-vous a la meme heure chaque jour], dit le renard. Si tu viens, par exemple, a quartre heures de l'apres-midi, des trois heures je commencerai d'etre heureux. Plus l'heure avancera, plus je me sentirai heureux. A quartre heures, deja, je m'agiterai et m'inquieterai: je decouvrirai le prix du bonheur!  Mais si tu viens n'importe quand, je ne saurai jamais a quelle heure m'habiller le coeur.. Il faut des rites [afin qu'on peut] fait qu'un jour est different des quatres jours, un heure, des autres heures.

"Come back every day at the same time," said the fox. "If you come, for example, at four o'clock in the afternoon, I will start to feel happy at three. The more the hour draws near, the more happy I will feel. At four, already I will be worrying and wondering: I will discover the price of happiness! But if you come at any time of day, I will never know when to prepare my heart... one must have rituals so that we can make one day different from the others, one hour different from all the rest."

Enfin, l'heure du depart du petit prince fut proche. Le renard etait si triste que le petit prince a dit que
--tu m'as demande a tu apprivoiser, mais maintenant je dois partir... tu n'y gagnes rien!
-J'y gagne, dit le renard, a cause de la couleur du ble.

Finally, the time when the little prince would have to leave drew near. The fox was so sad that the little prince said
"You asked me to tame you, but now I hae to leave... you have gained nothing!"
"I have gained something," replied the fox, "because of the colour of wheat."

-- Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est tres simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le couer. l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. C'est le temps que tu as perdu pour ta rose qui fait ta rose si importante: les hommes ont oublie cette verite. Mais tu ne dois pas l'oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour tojours de ce que tu as apprivoise. Tu es responsable de ta rose...

"Goodbye," said the fox. "here is my secret. it is very simple: we only see well with the heart. The essential things are invisible to the eyes. it is the time you spend on your friends that make them so important: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible for everything you tame. You are responsible for your friends."


That's a helter-skelter, unfaithful translation and summary of my favourite chapter in this book. I like it because it says so much, so elegantly about the nature of friendships; so I use it to try to thank mine.

I really do love you all. You'd be surprised. There is nothing for me like my friends, on line, in real life, wherever. Thank you.

Comments

[beauvoir.livejournal.com]

Boo

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Boo!

[beauvoir.livejournal.com]

You've killed me.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

What a shame! *wafts Siriusness above head*

I'm sure that'll wake you. :p

[beauvoir.livejournal.com]

Now I just smell like unwashed lion

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

But at least you're alive, right?

[beauvoir.livejournal.com]

And I smell like Sirius

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Some people would take that as a good thing.

Remus, for example.

Also, do you have a thing against full stops? XD

[beauvoir.livejournal.com]

Yes. They are evil and I hate them..

Actually, no I don't. Its just that usually I end up pressing enter instead of using a full stop and then pressing enter.

Whoops. Will try to use them more, you harpy.

:D

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

XD I wondered. I suppose sometimes they do get in the way of a really eloquent run-on sentence... ^^

Woo, I'm a harpy. *throws punctuation marks*

[beauvoir.livejournal.com]

I bleed.

[grey--skies.livejournal.com]

The Little Prince is one of these most awesome books.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

You said it OMG.

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Awwww *hugs* That's so cute!!! And I'm proud cause I understood nearly all the French. But it's rather simple French, isn't it?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Mmm.. it's kinda simple. But not full-simple. Remember this is a children's book; I read it in English when I was six. The good thing about it is that it's simple language, but complex and beautiful ideas. :)

[miriamus.livejournal.com]

Indeed. It's got the best metaphors...and I'd say it's at just the right level for how much French I know, at least. Makes me feel smart that I can read something in another language. Not nearly as impenetrable as the puns in Asterix.