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vieille France

English translation: fine as it is

18:03 Dec 19, 2012
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Other
French term or phrase: vieille France
I'm sorry for what is a basic question (I am not a translator), but I want to make sure I do this right.

I am editing an English-language book in which an author lives for a time in France. The author speaks only a certain amount of French. In the sentence below, am I using "vieille" correctly? I know it is the feminine form of the word, but here it is applying in some way to a man. In the original, the author had "vieux France," but I thought that was wrong. Is it OK, or is it odd to call a man "very vieille France"? Many thanks. Here's the sentence (in English as below except for the French phrase):

At about the same time I became friends with M. B___, an old French man, very vieille France, very traditional.
Zittle
Local time: 12:24
English translation:fine as it is
Explanation:
does it really need to be dumbed down?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2012-12-19 19:31:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

but should be in parentheses
Selected response from:

Jonathan MacKerron
Grading comment
Thanks! Apologies if my question was unclear or should have been in FR-->FR (I didn't feel comfortable writing there in English.) Italics will definitely make it to the finished book, don't worry!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +1old-school French
B D Finch
4 +1with old-fashioned (French) values
Daryo
2 +3fine as it is
Jonathan MacKerron


Discussion entries: 7





  

Answers


21 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
old-school French


Explanation:
As the reason for "vieille" being feminine is that it qualifies "France", it is the phrase "vieille France" that is being applied to the man, which is fine. I agree with jmleger, but would suggest "very old-school French".

alive.atari.org/alive6/mjj_spr.php
"A very old-school french wiz-coder named Leonard is hooked on producing more non-masked 2-bitplane sprites on screen than anyone else - that's fine with me ..."

www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_05/oct05/et_rev_bolshoi_0705....
" ... some (very) old-school French style bravura, and spectacular spectacle."

B D Finch
France
Local time: 21:24
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 52

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Nikki Scott-Despaigne: It's good this one has been posted, although I would probably now say that "French" can be dropped. "Vieille France" is fine for FR speakers but not for non-fluent lovers of France. "Old-school" is a good & can be seen when glossary post consulted. ;-)
1 hr
neutral  ACOZ (X): You're right about this person being "old school" but I wouldn't use the expression here in proximity to "French". Too similar to "school French".
4 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
with old-fashioned (French) values


Explanation:
"vieille France" = France as it was before, maybe one or two generations before today.


When used as an adjective, it's mainly a reference to traditional / old-fashioned values.

Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:24
Native speaker of: Native in SerbianSerbian, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  writeaway: old-fashioned? how old? I don't think it works in this context.
28 mins
  -> old-fashioned values - can't get much more close to the idea of "vieille France"
agree  ACOZ (X): Yes, "vieille France" conjures up a picture of a rather formal person with excellent old-fashioned manners and ideas.
3 hrs
  -> Merci!
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32 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +3
fine as it is


Explanation:
does it really need to be dumbed down?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2012-12-19 19:31:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

but should be in parentheses

Jonathan MacKerron
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 32
Grading comment
Thanks! Apologies if my question was unclear or should have been in FR-->FR (I didn't feel comfortable writing there in English.) Italics will definitely make it to the finished book, don't worry!
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks. This is it. And I probably should have put it in FR-FR, but wasn't sure if my English-only contextual babbling would be OK there.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Daryo: what about those who don't understand a word of French? Wasn't the point of translating to make it usable for those people?
21 mins
  -> A book about France without a single word of French? Moreover, it says 'very traditional'!
agree  Helen Shiner: You seem to be the only one who understands the question (perhaps it should have been posted FR-FR).
2 hrs
agree  Michele Fauble
2 hrs
agree  sktrans
8 hrs
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