dussé-je en souffrir
English translation: (Even) if I suffered from / Were I to suffer from
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| 22:48 Aug 6, 2008 |
| French to English translations [PRO] Idioms / Maxims / Sayings | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: Martin Cassell United Kingdom Local time: 03:20 | ||||||
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| Discussion entries: 2 | |
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Answers
59 mins confidence: 
at the risk of having to put up with it Explanation: But it doesn't seem to fit with "modestie"... |
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4 hrs confidence:
Your modesty, even were it to bring suffering on me, ... Explanation: Hello, I think this may be an elegant way of saying this in English. dussé-je en souffir (old formal French from the verb "devoir") = même si j'en souffrais en souffrir = to suffer from/by it (to pain me) I'm not sure exactly what is being meant by "souffrir" here. I'd need more context to know. Put at a disadvantage? mental pain/anguish? I hope this helps. Example sentence(s):
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11 hrs confidence:
...should I suffer from it... Explanation: Your modesty, should I suffer from it... |
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1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
peer agreement (net): +5(Even) if I suffered from / Were I to suffer from Explanation: If used modernly, this is necessarily highly "marked", self-consciously old-fashioned stylistically. My reading is that it is part of a pretty sarcastic tone, at least as deployed by M. Sarkozy (ref. above) ... "Even if I _were_ to suffer from your modesty ..." "Were I afflicted even with such modesty as yours, I still would not feel the need ..." -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2008-08-06 23:58:43 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- (In the surrounding text, M. Sarkozy has made clear that the object of his barbed words, far from being 'modest', is in fact extremely 'generous' with his advice to all and sundry, including to M. Sarkozy: one takes it M. Sarkozy does not agree at all with the specific advice offered, or considers it so obvious as to be beneath his contempt) -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2008-08-07 00:04:40 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- As writeaway point out, it's the impf.subj. (which was famously declared dead in 1955: see Duncan Cambell's August 2008 column at http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/harrap/features/ ). Le Petit Robert explains it as "Quand bien même", "even if/though": (À l'imp. du subj.) Littér. Quand même, quand bien même. Dussé-je y consacrer ma fortune. Dussent mille dangers me menacer. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2008-08-07 00:06:51 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Er, oops, corrigendum: DOUGAL Campbell. (Sorry, Dougal, had you playing Premiership soccer there for a moment!) -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 10 hrs (2008-08-07 09:33:30 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Literarily, this particular phrase seems to be used more often as an independent clause, meaning "though it (would/were to) pain me"/"though I (would/were to) suffer for it"; as far as I can disentangle M. Sarkozy's presumably unscripted phrase, he is using a remembered 'expression consacrée', but twisting it into a slightly different usage. For the record: Balzac, 1832 (Scènes de la vie parisienne): "Tout le bien que je pourrai faire, je l'accomplirai, même dussé-je en souffrir." http://gallica2.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k101396r.image.highlig... De Ferry, 1892: "si vous n'êtes pas plus sérieux, je serai tenue, dussé-je en souffrir, de vous fermer ma porte." http://gallica2.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k214825s.zoom.r=dussé-... -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 15 hrs (2008-08-07 14:13:57 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Hmmm. I don't know, the more this stews away at the back of my mind the more I wonder about my interpretation, which (even though marked as only medium certainty) was based on the assumption that it's a fully well-formed sentence, whereas being a transcript it might in fact represent a few disconnected, uncompleted fragments ... I think we really need a native speaker's insights into this. |
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