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French to English translations [Non-PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
French term or phrase:gourmandise
Avec un nombre actif 14, leprenom est fortement attirée par les plaisirs de toutes sortes. Sa ***gourmandise*** et sa sensualité, liées à son impulsivité, la poussent parfois plus loin qu'elle ne l'aurait voulu...Adam en sut quelque chose !
For now I have: With an active number of 14, leprenom could be enticed by all sorts of pleasures. Her sensuality and her overwhelming desire for more, together with her impulsivity, can sometimes take her further than she intended... Adam would have understood!
But this just sounds too shexhual... and I don't know about "further than she intended"... Maybe "indulgence" or "tendency to indulge"... "indulgeability" (joke)
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 8 hrs (2011-12-25 01:14:40 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Arnold L. Goldsmith - 1991 - Literary Criticism "Their voraciousness and sensuality temporarily appeased, ..." The modern American urban novel: nature as "interior structure" Arnold L. Goldsmith - 1991 - Literary Criticism books.google.com/books?isbn=0814319947...
"could" is conditional but your original has no conditional other than the conditional past of "aurait voulu".
"serai" is either future simple or simple past, not conditional. "seraiS" is conditional.
The other verbs are :
“est attiré” = passive voice, simple present of ‘attirer’ = is attracted alternatively, simple present of the expression « être attire par » = is attracted to (the expression being drawn from the passive voice)
“[sa gourmandise et sa sensualité] la poussent… » = simple present of ‘pousser’ = push her (literally). Active voice here which could of course be rendered by the passive voice in English.
“elle aurait voulu” = conditional past (conditional of the auxiliary modal °+ past participle of main verb) = would have liked
“Adam sut = past historic/simple past of the verb ‘savoir’
That's the way I read the originals. It is a starting point. However, there is often justification for adopting a different mood set depending on how you want to render the overall mood. I see no reason to do that here. In any event, the relationship between the bits of the text has to be respected.
Michèle is right about the existence of 'voraciousness'. It exists in French too of course, 'voracité'. However, as 'gourmandise' can be likened to 'friandise', someone who is 'gourmand' is French being someone who has a sweet tooth, I do not think that here your original is tending towards the gluttony end of the scale here! Voraciousness cetainly exists and is much more elegant and much finer than gluttony, but I still see nothing wrong with retaining the 'greed' of the original. If you really want to know, then do bear in mind that 'gourmand' does have sexual overtones in some circumstances, 'gluttony' and 'voraciousness' turn it into something a little obsessional.
Indeed it is!, I obviously had my languages the wrong way round on wordref and collins was in thesaurus mode (doh), too much christmas maybe! So yes, today it DOES indeed exsist as a word, :o) and could be the one I am looking for... Nikki: what do you think? This is a numerology report, based first names - www.signification-prenom.com ... Merry Christmas to All!
Context. In context, I assumed Adam was a character in the piece you are translating, not that it was a reference to Adam, as in Eve. ;-)
In fact, perhaps more context would help. What is this "active number" business? Is this anything to do with astrology by any chance? If this is the context, then I would probably get to grips with your choice of tense a little better. But now, I'm going to bed. Maybe Father Christmas will have the answers in your stocking tomorrow morning!
Hmmm... In any case Adam wasn't greedy, he was impressionable and probably quite fancied an apple anyway... Did you know that in sumerien adam means "cattle": Il n'est pas étonnant de remarquer que le terme sumérien Á-DAM englobe les définitions suivantes : "animaux" ; "bêtes" ; "troupeaux" ; "troupes enrôlées" ; "colonisation" ; "infliger"…
On the one hand, in everyday spoken French "il en sait quelque chose!" is an expression you hear to mean something along the lines of "He knows all about it!", in the sense of the person really knows what the other one is talking about, or really knows the situation well. It is an exclamation, a reference to being familiar with the situation oneself. "Adam understood" is an undertranslation in my view.
On the other hand, "Overwhelming desire for more" sounds like an overtranslation to me. Impulsiveness (-ivity) is already mentioned so "overwhelming" goes beyond the original and also leads you to a more explicitly suggestive tone. If you keep "greediness", there is suggestion without suggestiveness! Sensual, sexy perhaps less sexual...
This is just my opinion, my reading and so on, which may not suit the style you have adopted elsewhere.
"Adam en sut quelque chose..." Just a note to say that this is in the simple past, not the conditional past (or conditional anterior). It should therefore be rendered as "knew" not "would have known". However, I can see how you may opt for the verb 'understand' rather than 'known'. Just realised that the choice of "could" seems odd too particularly as you use "can" later on, but it is probably a matter of context.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
10 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
greediness
Explanation: love of good things healthy appetite BTW "implusiveness" rather than impulsivity
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 mins (2011-12-24 17:26:05 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
probably more in the sense of hunger or thirst for life
polyglot45 Native speaker of: English, French PRO pts in category: 227
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you (for the eness) ! But I don't like greedy, just sounds so... greedy. Like a deadly sin, you know?
1 hr confidence:
hearty appetite
Explanation: Gourmandise usually deals with food -- hearty appetite covers that, but can also be understood a bit wider.
As someone who is more a gourmand than a gourmet, I love the fact that French doesn't make a judgement, the way, I think, greedy does.
Joshua Wolfe Local time: 12:32 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: Quite! Thats why we "borrowed" the word "gourmand"I suppose. Lazy Mr Collins!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 8 hrs (2011-12-25 01:14:40 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Arnold L. Goldsmith - 1991 - Literary Criticism "Their voraciousness and sensuality temporarily appeased, ..." The modern American urban novel: nature as "interior structure" Arnold L. Goldsmith - 1991 - Literary Criticism books.google.com/books?isbn=0814319947...
Michele Fauble United States Local time: 09:32 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 16
Notes to answerer
Asker: Sounds nice but doesn't seem to exist as a word... yet.
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peer agreement (net): +2
