flying away from the meaning

[IEDSRI@aol.com]

Robb quotes the standard translation of "Ne t'enfuis pas" --

 >       Si les grands yeux de mon Dieu /If my God's great eyes
 >       Ne me gardaient pas, /Were not watching over me, (2)
 >       Je te volerais /I would steal you (3)
 > 
 >       Ne t'enfuis pas! /Don't run away! (1)

-- and writes:

 >  Are you sure? My French is pretty rusty, but I always
 >  thought it was:

 >> "If the great eyes of my God
 >>  Don't watch over me
 >>  I would fly to you".

 >  Not "flee from you".

Unlikely.  The latter imaginary (and grammatically unparallel) passage above
would have to read as something like:

 > Si les grands yeux de mon dieu
 > Ne me gardent pas, [note: not the clearly audible "gardaient"]
 > Je volerais vers toi  [not "je te volerais"].  

"Je te volerais"  clearly has "you" as the direct object,
thus necessitating translation of "voler" here as the
transitive "steal (away)"  (or its rough equivalent).

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
     S               R             I