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.
French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / Novel
French term or phrase:faire de lui un homme de bien
I think the idea here is that this man, who may seem to be less of one. since he shivers and wears scarves 9 months out of the year, has to rush back into his apartment so he can recover and turn back into what would be considered a "real" man. One option someone offered me is "a decent man," but I'm not too sure about that in this context.
Or does this mean something more along the lines of being a gentleman?
Contexte:
"Il vivait en écharpe plus de neuf mois sur douze et, parce qu'il grelottait presqu'en toute saison, on s'empressa dans l'immeuble de **faire de lui un homme de bien.** D'écharpe, il possédait une bonne treintaine bien qu'à leur mariage il n'eût que deux"
Explanation: I recognised this one right away - have seen the expression in 19th century literature (probably Balzac). I think the term is use sarcastically here!
That's actually what I was saying (I think!). But, bearing in mind the difference the 's' makes to the sense, perhaps one shouldn't make any assumptions re typos, and check this with the client what was really intended (and perhaps also if it was supposed to be ironic!)
I think it's the other way round. It seemed to be old texts that made a clear differentiation between "homme de bien" (a good man) and "homme de biens" (a rich man), although they might have become blurred at some point. There's some debate currently about the accuracy of the translation "easier for a camel... than for a rich man to get into heaven" - perhaps for this reason i.e., people were already confused then! It was on Radio 4, but sadly I didn't hear the whole thing, so can't quote accurately... But I entirely agree that this doesn't make much sense here, hence my query about whether it could be a typo
There is a lot of support for 'homme de bien' with the sense of 'possessions', I suspect the singular is the original usage, and the plural seems more familiar because it tends to be more current.
Where would the logic been in trying to make someone more 'righteous' by making them gifts of scarves? Seems to me it's just like the old ties / hankies / socks syndrome... "He wears scarves a lot, so he must need more!"
an "homme de bien" is a righteous/good man (see Ref, below). But I agree that this is hard to make sense of in this context. Is there any chance of there being a typo for "biens" (property/wealth)?
After a good night's sleep, I now believe that the sentence can be better interpreted by replacing the full stop after "homme de bien" with a colon. It's humour! They are definitely talking about wealth/property, but as someone says further down, this refers to the scarves. People in the building hastened to turn him into a man of wealth by giving him scarves. Which is why he now has thirty when he only had 2 on his wedding day.
Thanks for drawing this to my attention, Tony. I now believe what the author is saying is that the people in the building paid so much attention to him because of his scarves, that it made him feel, or become in their eyes, "a man of property."
This certainly doesn't suggest to me that he "has to rush back into his apartment..." — surely the 'on' refers to the other residents in the building? (as Gilla has said)
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
3 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
make a proper man of him
Explanation: Not sure, but this is what your context suggest to me.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 mins (2011-02-09 18:13:43 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I assume it's the other residents who wish to do this to him
Evans (X) Local time: 06:40 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 48
peer agreement (net): +5