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besoins peu substituables et peu reportables
tumeur en rapport avec la gorge portale
Jun 2, 2013 13:36
10 yrs ago
French term

flétrir

French to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature
Still dealing with the Theseus legend. Minos, king of Crete, is a somewhat bureaucratic lawmaker who keeps the monster, the Minotaur, chained in the labyrinth. He says to Theseus who has brought the sacrifical victims to Crete:

"Mon cœur saigne à la pensée de ces victimes que je veux croire innocentes, mais il en va du monstre comme de la guerre, que je flétris, et ne me hâte pas d'abolir."

I read this as something along the lines of:
"My heart bleeds at the thought of the victims whom I want to believe innocent, but it's the same with the monster as with war, I condemn it, and I am in no hurry to abolish it."

Here, "flétrir" appears to have its sense of "Frapper d'une condamnation infamante". But that seems to contradict "ne me hâte pas d'abolir".

TIA!
Proposed translations (English)
5 I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it
4 +1 condemn

Discussion

DLyons (asker) Jun 3, 2013:
@Carol You're quite right - what I asked was just "flétrir"! And I appreciate the help you gave.
Rachel Fell Jun 2, 2013:
et I thought either "and yet" or "but"...
Paul Hirsh Jun 2, 2013:
you could also stay with "and hasten not to abolish it" rather than the colloquial form
Paul Hirsh Jun 2, 2013:
"et" "et" is a literary device borrowed from the classics allowing a paradox to highlight itself without the writer resorting to contrastive/concessive conjunctions. I would try to keep it in the translation.
Daryo Jun 2, 2013:
et (malgré tout) ...
DLyons (asker) Jun 2, 2013:
@all Thanks. Yes, "abhor" works I think. I'm leaning towards something like "while being in no hurry to abolish it" for the last clause. Perhaps my question really is what does "et" mean in French :-)
Carol Gullidge Jun 2, 2013:
I like 'abhor'!
polyglot45 Jun 2, 2013:
you could try abhor
Germaine Jun 2, 2013:
Totally agree with Nikki.
Nikki Scott-Despaigne Jun 2, 2013:
wither, fade, dishonour I'd probably be a little less familiar in the second half, given the context. It is probably a good idea to avoid abbreviated forms too.
"... but the same is true of both monster and war, which I dishonour [to which I do no honour], and which I do not hasten to abolish".

Proposed translations

21 hrs
Selected

I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

Not sure whether a comma or a dash works best after the first part, but this might get the idea across.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "That's a nice play on words Huw."
+1
24 mins

condemn

Collins Robert:

flétrir [2] condemn... (Hist) brand

This makes sense to me, and is what I would have posted anyway, even if Collins hadn't corroborated it!

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Note added at 30 mins (2013-06-02 14:06:41 GMT)
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Sorry, I see that this is exactly what you posted in your question!

'Brand' sounds a little harsher, but won't stand on its own. Maybe you could consider changing that last 'and' to 'yet', although I can understand why you might be reluctant to do this.

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Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2013-06-03 19:46:00 GMT) Post-grading
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Yes, I'm sure you were, but the term in the question is just "flétrir",

Which of course is not to say that I disagree with your choice!
Note from asker:
Thanks Carol. I was undecided between and/but/yet/while...
Peer comment(s):
agree Christopher Nery (X) : "et" dans ce contexte sous-entend "mais"
7 hrs
merci Jean--Davide!
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