Saturday, May 24, 2008

Voyage aux etoiles: Les Gemeaux et le Gornais



"Style and Substance"
--photo for stylish Geminis I know, by Fresca

Geminis ("les Gemeaux" in French) love style and words--for their own sakes, as well as for what they convey.

Donna has provided a perfect example of this love in action.
She was charmed by Bink's Star Trek (something like "Voyage aux etoiles" in French) "Il Sapore"--K/S Italian Style--so for fun, she went and translated the whole thing into French [below] and sent it to me along with this explanatory note:

Note:
French always includes the article with the noun.

I can’t remember how it is in Italian, but French has two distinct terms for “word”—“mot” refers to words as a conceptual idea, while “paroles” refers specifically to the spoken word.

Also, the French word “la cuillere” refers to a small teaspoon, so you have to add adjectives to specify anything bigger or smaller or more use-specific. Our English word for spoon generally refers to a generic soupspoon, so that’s the option I’ve included here (la cuillère à soupe).

Diacritics are considered part of the proper spelling of any French word, especially given that the presence or absence or type of accent over a letter can completely change a word's meaning.
My goodness, I swear that adding the diacritics was harder than translating the darn thing….!

No doubt this is WAY more precision than really matters, but there you have it.


Now, as a Pisces I am not very fluent in the form of things, I pretty much only pay attention to the ideas underneath.
Which is one of the reasons I feel blessed to know Geminis--they continually show me the power, glory, beauty, elegance, and plain old fun of form.
After all, it is form that carries ideas.

Bon Anniversaire!
(Did I miss some accents there?)

Here's Donna's fabulous translation of Bink's "Il Sapore" (English translation in comments--same as the one for "K/S Italian Style"):

Le Goût

“La téléconférence, c’est pour vous Capitain,” dit Uhura.

K: “Allô, c’est le capitain Kirk à l’appareil.”

Sulu: “Bonjour Capitain. C’est Sulu à l’appareil. Vous et Spock, où etes-vous allés en vacances? Vous vous êtes bien amusés?”

K: “Nous sommes allés à la planète de Gorn. Spock parle gornais très bien. La langue n’a que des jurons, excepté certains mots qui s’agissent des insectes. Les Gornais aiment bien manger de gros insectes!”

Sulu: “Mais Spock? C’est bien passé avec lui?”

K: “O, Spock…Spock me plaît…sa bouche…ses baisers…et avec de la crème Chantilly….”

Sulu: “La crème Chantilly?”

K: “Oui, et il est tellement difficile de trouver de la crème Chantilly à Gorn! Les gros insectes…sans problème! La glace aux insectes…sans problème! Mais la crème Chantilly…non! Les Gornais, ils ont une glace aux petits insectes délicieux, mais sans crème Chantilly. Difficile à comprendre, non?”

Sulu: “Alors, le goût de Spock lui-même, ça vous a plu?”

K: “Et oui…son goût ressemble à celui de la crème Chantilly, à celui de la neige, et à celui des moustiques. Je pourrais le manger à la cuillerée!”

6 comments:

Fresca said...

Translation (By Bink, of her Italian version, which Sister translated into French here.)

"The Taste."

Uhura says, “The teleconference is for you, Captain”.

“Hello! This is Kirk.”

“Sulu here. How did it go with Spock? Where did you guys go on vacation?”

K: “ We went to the planet of the Gorn. You know Spock speaks the Gorn language very well. It’s a language that is totally swearwords, except for the words about insects. The Gorn love to eat giant insects!”

“But, Spock? How did it go with Spock?”

K: “O, Spock…Spock pleases me…his mouth…his kisses…with whipped cream…

“Whipped cream?”

K: “Yes, and whipped cream is very difficult to find on Gorn! Big insects…yes! Insect ice cream…yes! But whipped cream…no! The Gorn make a really good ice cream with small insects, but you can only get it without whipped cream. I couldn’t believe it!”

“So Spock tasted good?”

K: “Yes…like whipped cream, and snow, and mosquitoes. I could eat him with a spoon.”

Nicky said...

I am truely honored to have my little story translated into French. And at that, French which I am certain is perfect (unlike my Italian).

Anonymous said...

I'm just hoping Bink will now be inspired to do a French adaptation of the illustration ....

Fresca said...

I wonder what the Gorn look in French...

Nicky said...

French Gorn wear berets...and are sometimes seen on bicycles.

Anonymous said...

Autant d'hommes, autant d'avis. Chacun a son gout!

Soi-disant Leo