Re: Kate and French

[jessica@athos.rutgers.edu (jessica)]

bjhs@hplb.hpl.hp.COM (Ben Siemerink) writes: (although not as compactly)

>In Ne T'Enfuis pas, Kate             >Which is being translated in 	
>uses the following chorus:	      >The Garden as:

>"   Si les grands yeux de mon Dieu   >"   If the great eyes of my God
>    Ne me gardaient pas	      >    Were not watching (over) me,
>    Je te volerais"		      >    I would steal you away."

>But, "garder" means "to keep", and "regarder" means "to watch"! Probably
>she did it this way to get it fit into the rythm, but actually its not
>correct.

I disagree. [I'm not french, but i do have 5 years of french study and
10 weeks living in france, so i'm not un-familiar with the language
and it's translation.] 

You are right about the literal translations of the words. However, I
do believe the phrase "watch over" fits into the meaning of the song
better than simply "watch", and that "garder" expresses "watch over"
(which is a sense of keeping) better than "regarder".

The image for is one of the eyes watching keeping her from being able
to steal the other away - she *is* being "kept"; "guarded", by eyes
that are watching her.

>Anyway, still a very nice song to listen to...

Mmmm and there i agree 100%. one of my favorites.

>Ben.

			jessica
		 -- 
|| jessica  || It is this that || Don't try to tell me there's no reason for ||
|| lawrence ||    brings us    || any moment in time, every memory of mine.  ||
|| koeppel  ||    together.    || Those years are lines of color on my face, ||
|| dembski  ||        --Kate   || the past is warpaint.     --Happy Rhodes   ||