neither it nor quite them

French translation: plus lui-même, mais pas tout à fait eux (or ni lui, ni eux)

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:neither it nor quite them
French translation:plus lui-même, mais pas tout à fait eux (or ni lui, ni eux)
Entered by: Unbounded Arts

18:23 Sep 23, 2012
English to French translations [PRO]
Poetry & Literature / Autobiographical novel
English term or phrase: neither it nor quite them
As my previous question, this comes from the sentence below:

The only thing is, it's getting easier now that I have lived through a number of decades, but how do you deal with these bulls in the china shop of your psyche, when you're 5, then 11, then 14, then throughout your passage from teenage to adulthood, in this world where events and people try to raise you again, to 'e-raise' the love, the care, the education you received at home, to mold you into something they believe they would be more comfortable with, unaware as they are that they would end up hating the monster they will have created, neither it nor quite them?
Unbounded Arts
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:10
ni lui, ni eux
Explanation:
inconscients de la haine qu'ils finiraient par porter à ce monstre de leur création, monstre ni lui, ni eux.

Au sens où ils échouent à façonner la personne qu'ils voudraient et font un monstre "bâtard", plus lui-mê mais pas non plus eux.
Selected response from:

Catherine De Crignis
France
Local time: 03:10
Grading comment
plus lui-même, mais pas tout à fait eux.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4ni lui, ni eux
Catherine De Crignis
4et qu'ils ne sauraient qualifier, ni apprécier
Word Pass
2 +1ni ce petit (quelque) chose ni tout à fait eux
Jocelyne Cuenin


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


13 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
ni lui, ni eux


Explanation:
inconscients de la haine qu'ils finiraient par porter à ce monstre de leur création, monstre ni lui, ni eux.

Au sens où ils échouent à façonner la personne qu'ils voudraient et font un monstre "bâtard", plus lui-mê mais pas non plus eux.

Catherine De Crignis
France
Local time: 03:10
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
plus lui-même, mais pas tout à fait eux.
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12 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +1
ni ce petit (quelque) chose ni tout à fait eux


Explanation:
'it' pourrait être tout simplement 'ça',

mais à cause des 'it-girls' que tout le monde a à l'esprit, j'ai eu envie de jouer un peu et de faire une traduction qui inclurait des références culturelles.
(Je sais, c'est un peu osé, mais quand on considère "e-raise", c'est un peu dans la même veine.)

1) it-girl : elle a "ce-petit-quelque-chose-en-plus" ou tout simplement "ce petit quelque chose" comme dans la chanson Ella.

The invention of the concept "It" is often attributed to Elinor Glyn, who wrote the original magazine story which inspired the film It. However, Rudyard Kipling,[5] in the short story "Mrs. Bathurst", had introduced "It" as early as 1904.[6][7][8]
In the introduction to the film, Glyn described the term thus:
"It" is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With "It" you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man.[2]
and
Self-confidence and indifference whether you are pleasing or not and something in you that gives the impression that you are not at all cold.[2]
Glyn stated that "Personality plus", was the rock-bottom definition[9] and that "conceit" destroyed "It".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_girl

2) Le petit Chose d'Alphonse Daudet
http://elg0002.free.fr/pdf/daudet_petit_chose.pdf
p 20 : pourquoi on l’a surnommé „le petit Chose“

ou encore, plus récent,
http://www.paroles-musique.com/paroles-Tryo-Le_Petit_Chose-l...

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Note added at 13 hrs (2012-09-24 07:31:26 GMT)
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NB : pas vraiment ça, ni tout à fait eux
me conviendrait bien aussi.


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Note added at 13 hrs (2012-09-24 08:19:42 GMT)
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Je vois 'it' comme représentant le 'something they believe they would be more comfortable with'.

Jocelyne Cuenin
Germany
Local time: 03:10
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 36

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Letredenoblesse: ni "ce" quelque chose ni tout à fait eux.(sans "petit").
1 hr
  -> Bonne journée, Agnes, merci de bien vouloir jeter un coup d'oeil sur ce genre de traduction-jeu !
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2 days 23 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
et qu'ils ne sauraient qualifier, ni apprécier


Explanation:
another approach:
... inconscients du fait qu'ils finiraient par haïr ce monstre pourtant créé par eux-mêmes, et qu'ils ne sauraient qualifier, ni apprécier.

Word Pass
France
Local time: 03:10
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench
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