This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
  1. KudoZ™ Top
  2. French to English
  3. History

lumiere semencielle

English translation: life-giving light

10:00 Jan 31, 2008
French to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - History
French term or phrase: lumiere semencielle
From a text on the artist who created the Muslim cemetary for the descendents of Emir Abdelkarder at the chateau d'Amboise.

I realise that this is the adjective from the word 'semence', but I am having a difficult time finding a way to word it in English. For now I'm working on trying to somehow verbalize it with 'sowing' but I admit that I'm pretty stumped.

Rachid Koraïchi ignorait en commençant qu’il se consumerait jusque-là. Il s’est fait artisan, voyageant beaucoup sur les pas de l’Émir, travaillant dur, tour à tour élevé, presque chantant, presque dansant, puis grave et sombre jusqu’à la nuit. Je l’ai connu au bord de la rupture. Il n’avait pas compris alors que la Présence de Dieu le fendait en deux. Comment, sinon, aurait-il été le témoin d’Abdelkader, capable de proclamer : « J’ai deux faces : Lui et moi ! », capable d’affirmer que nous sommes à la fois récipients divins et matrices et que, de récipients en récipients – la mosquée, l’église, la synagogue – la lumière semencielle peut couler librement.
French Foodie
Local time: 01:34
English translation:life-giving light
Explanation:
Since light, divine or otherwise, is the source of life, physical or life of the mind, and seeds are how life is passed on.
Selected response from:

Attorney DC Bar
Local time: 01:34
Grading comment
So many wonderful answers! I finally chose this one. Thanks to everyone for your help.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +1procreative light
B D Finch
4 +1life-giving light
Attorney DC Bar
4the begetting light...
Pierre POUSSIN
3Inspirational light
Cervin
2self-perpetuating light
Sandra Petch
2burgeoning light
Emma Paulay


  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
the begetting light...


Explanation:
or "the generating light", or, even, "the fertilizing light"...

Pierre POUSSIN
France
Local time: 01:34
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 24
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
self-perpetuating light


Explanation:
I like Irat's suggestions but this is what came to my mind... a continuous chain, a light that carries on from person to person.

Not an easy text to translate by the look of it.

Sandra Petch
Local time: 01:34
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
procreative light


Explanation:
God the father ...

"The penetration of the soil by the seminal waters and **procreative light** ... with an earnest of eternity and also unites him with both God and nature through ..."
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-7484(197123)12%3A4%3C527%3ACAACDI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3

"... like God and its correlates light and poetry, presupposed rather than logically ... back to the originary and **procreative "light** of the sun" {208-09). ..."
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0044-0078(1990)77%3C243%3ABTLMTS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8 -



B D Finch
France
Local time: 01:34
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 35

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kari Foster
46 mins
  -> Thanks Kari
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Inspirational light


Explanation:
A dip into my thesaurus (concise Oxford) found 'inspire under 'beget'...so, I thought, looking at your text, it might be worth a try! What a text-good luck!

Cervin
United Kingdom
Local time: 00:34
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
life-giving light


Explanation:
Since light, divine or otherwise, is the source of life, physical or life of the mind, and seeds are how life is passed on.

Attorney DC Bar
Local time: 01:34
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
So many wonderful answers! I finally chose this one. Thanks to everyone for your help.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Sandra Petch
21 mins
  -> tks Sandra. It's not particularly original, but it sounds natural at least.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5
burgeoning light


Explanation:
Engendering light?

Emma Paulay
France
Local time: 01:34
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 26
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:
ProZ.com term search
Search millions of term translations
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search