Aug 27, 2006 04:51
17 yrs ago
4 viewers *
French term
Sans angélisme ni esprit de contradiction...
French to English
Social Sciences
Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
This is a report about a walking tour of the "banlieux" of Paris. I've provided some context below (but have left text out for the sake of brevity). I really don't quite understand what's being said with "Sans angélisme ni esprit de contradiction particulier". Even an explanation in French would be welcome!
Clichés au départ: Avant le départ « on » nous avait prévenus nous imposant l’exposé d’une litanie sans appel - etc.
Images contrastées à l’arrivée: Sans angélisme ni esprit de contradiction particulier, nous avons plutôt été sensibles à d’autres aspects : la grande diversité des banlieues ; les contrastes forts entre périphéries - etc.
Thanks in advance!
Clichés au départ: Avant le départ « on » nous avait prévenus nous imposant l’exposé d’une litanie sans appel - etc.
Images contrastées à l’arrivée: Sans angélisme ni esprit de contradiction particulier, nous avons plutôt été sensibles à d’autres aspects : la grande diversité des banlieues ; les contrastes forts entre périphéries - etc.
Thanks in advance!
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +1 | An explanation, not a translation |
PFB (X)
|
| 4 | without being naively optimistic or seeking to find fault |
Rob Grayson
|
Proposed translations
+1
1 hr
Selected
An explanation, not a translation
"Angélisme" could be defined as not wanting to see the defects/shortcomings/down side, etc. and "esprit de contradiction" is the habit of challenging every statement etc. just for the sake of it.
They're saying that they don't want to appear
(a) to be too naively optimistic about the situation in the Paris suburbs and
(b) to contradict/oppose systematically what they've been told about the suburbs.
They had the usual cliches before the tour began ("clichés au départ"), but in fact they are discovering something about the suburbs which they didn't expect (diversity, etc.).
So they want to report what they saw faithfully and that is different from what they were told to expect. If their report is different, it is neither because that's what they want/imagine the suburbs to be ("sans angélisme") nor for the sake of challenging the accepted description of the suburbs ("esprit de contradiction").
I hope this makes sense, and I'll leave you or other native speakers to put it in proper English. The level 3 is because I realize that an explanation is not a translation.
They're saying that they don't want to appear
(a) to be too naively optimistic about the situation in the Paris suburbs and
(b) to contradict/oppose systematically what they've been told about the suburbs.
They had the usual cliches before the tour began ("clichés au départ"), but in fact they are discovering something about the suburbs which they didn't expect (diversity, etc.).
So they want to report what they saw faithfully and that is different from what they were told to expect. If their report is different, it is neither because that's what they want/imagine the suburbs to be ("sans angélisme") nor for the sake of challenging the accepted description of the suburbs ("esprit de contradiction").
I hope this makes sense, and I'll leave you or other native speakers to put it in proper English. The level 3 is because I realize that an explanation is not a translation.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Your explanation made perfect sense and was actually quite a good translation. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain these two expressions to me. "
3 hrs
without being naively optimistic or seeking to find fault
I don't claim that this is the best translation, but post it to start the ball rolling, in the hope that someone will come along with a better one...
Note from asker:
| Hi Rob, I liked your translation, but since I can only award points to one person, I gave them to Philippe because his explanation was so good. Thank you for replying! |
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