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French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Music / Erik Satie, eccentric as always
French term or phrase:“Le piano, comme l’argent, n’est pas agréable qu’à celui qui en touche.”
Sorry about the lack of diacritical markings -- my German-speaking computer doesn't always play along. This is Erik Satie being his usual sardonic self. I read it more or less as: The piano, like money, is only fun for the person who's handling it. But French is so absolutely NOT one of my languages....! and Satie has stumped me often enough. I'll be grateful for correction! Best wishes from Nina in Zürich.
You are spot on here. In case further confirmation were needed, Ornella Volta's edition of Satie's Écrits (Paris: Éditions Champ Libre, 1977), gives it without "pas": https://books.google.es/books?redir_esc=y&id=KLOyAAAAIAAJ&fo... I think it originally comes from Satie's Sports & Divertissements (1914).
And of course Tony is right about the pun. "Get your hands on it" seems to me an excellent rendering.
In his Satie the Bohemian, Steven Moore Whiting suggests that Satie's bon mot may have been inspired by Vincent Hyspa:
"Le Piano montre toujours les dents comme une jolie femme. Reçoit-il le moindre coup de poing sur la gueule qu'il se lamente comme si on lui avait marché sur la queue ; et il en sera toujours ainsi tant qu'on n'aura pas trouvé un traitement radical des mélodies honteuses pour pianos à queue." https://books.google.es/books?id=SD2RZ3taYQUC&pg=PA447
Satie is of course a great source of quotations. He was sentenced to eight days in prison for insulting the composer and critic Jean Poueigh: "Monsieur et cher ami, vous n’êtes qu’un cul, mais un cul sans musique." Fortunately they settled it amicably.
You are right, the 'pas' should not be there. See : ' The piano, like money, is only fun for the person who's handling ' so it should be : Le piano, tout comme l'argent, n'est agréable qu'à celui qui en touche, which makes even more sense.
This site ( https://books.google.ca/books?id=WLvRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT266&lpg=P... ) proposes this translation: "The piano is like money,it's only pleasant when you've got your hands on it." No mention of "fun". "you've got your hands on it" seems like a fair rendition of "en touche".
Nina: here is a link to the museum's site: https://unkmapied.fr/maison-satie/ If you scroll down, you will find the quote, which matches that found in all other sites found by Google. Good luck with your translation.
A key point here that no-one seems to have touched on is the typical Satie play on words — 'toucher' in the literal sense of 'tinkling the ivories' — but in the case of money, 'toucher' doesn't really mean to physically touch or handle it, but in the sense of 'get' or 'receive. I don't know how to set about translating an equivalent pun, but I do think awareness of this subtlety is necessary to inform our interpretation. I also agree with Phil, 'agréable" here really is nothing to do with 'fun' (s'amuser etc.), but much more to do with 'enjoyable' — indeed, other versions of the Satie quote I've found use 'plaisant'.
I feel sure that Marco's corrected version is the original intention — 'is not enjoyable only to ...' simply doesn't make much sense here. And sadly, it has to be said that even the curators of worthy museums have been known to make blunders of this magnitude — as I know to my cost!
Many thanks to Marco Solinas! His objection was exactly my problem with this sentence. However -- the sentence as I posted it was sent to me by a British friend who visited the Erik Satie museum in Honfleuer two days ago. She has no knowledge of French, she only sent me the sentence that she read there and asked for a translation. I am quite sure that she, totally ignorant of French, sent me the sentence as she saw it reproduced there. What should I believe? Her faithful representation of what she saw, or the more logical version suggested here?
The correct citation woud be "Le piano, comme l'argent, n'est agréable qu'à celui qui en touche." (see http://dicocitations.lemonde.fr/citations/citation-25356.php and many othe sites). The extra "pas"in the asker's question comptetely changes the meaning; it it makes the sentence mean the opposite of what Satie said.
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“Le piano, comme l’argent, n’est agréable qu’à celui qui en touche.”
"[Playing] Piano is like money - it's pleasurable only if you can get your hands on it"
Explanation: This would make sense from the viewpoint of someone who enjoyed playing piano.
Daryo United Kingdom Local time: 04:15 Native speaker of: Serbian, French PRO pts in category: 4
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Many thanks to all for an interesting discussion!
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