place de Tournai

07:33 Sep 18, 2013 

The customer said it meant town, so I suppose I have to assume that is the right answer. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

16:52 May 22, 2013 

makes sense and removes the need for dangerous guesswork.

16:44 May 22, 2013 

Personally, I fully agree with the client

16:43 May 22, 2013 

(Although I'm not 100% convinced by my client's take on this.)

16:42 May 22, 2013 

I was told by my client that the author meant the town, so I put, "Tournai was to remain under British command until 20 July 1919."

16:37 May 22, 2013 

Conor, I understood that you mean keep the original in French is to be literal.

16:33 May 22, 2013 

Page down to the first discussion entry.

16:13 May 22, 2013 

Barbara, although I fully agree with your Tournai and Berlin remarks, I think it would be to overtranslate if you use sector as the word for "place". Perhaps, you could use it as an explanation to the (place de Tournai) if you arrive to a specific historic reference on such usage regarding to Tournai during the WWI.

16:03 May 22, 2013 

As for Nikki suggestion, I just would consider that an explanation of the original name (and not its literal translation as I have suggested) would be very helpful to the reader anyway.

15:58 May 22, 2013 

Sorry, but I cannot find Nikki's literary interpretarion here. Coult you please tell me where I should look for that?

15:32 May 22, 2013 

That's very interesting. The comparison only applies with Berlin, obviously, in the sense of being "occupied" by a foreign power during peacetime.

14:13 May 22, 2013 

Tournai being rather a lot smaller and less important than Berlin and also having been part of the winning side's territory in WWI rather than the losing side's territory in WWII, it was not divided into sectors and was not a "Berlin-like situation". I also believe that, unlike Berlin, it was only held by the British forces, in the immediate aftermath of the war, as a temporary measure pending return to Belgian civilian rule.

References to the "Tournai sector" appear to mean an area rather larger than just the town itself, as opposed to a section of the town. "Sector" is used in its operational, military sense.

13:53 May 22, 2013 

Nikki's LITERARY interpretation. "EN son temps", meaning it was also. What the author was getting at remains unclear, but unfortunately that's all the client said and the mystery will remain unsolved.

13:47 May 22, 2013 

Nikki's literally interpretation? Berlin divisé "a son temps" en secteurs? Berlin was divided after WWII. But anyway, even it it would be the meaning here, the "sector" would be related to Tournai square by that time. You can't use the word "place" as a whole town unless you think about the Tournai square was the "address" of Tournai townhall or its equivalent by that time.

13:39 May 22, 2013 

I liked Nikki's literary intepretation, which is entirely valid, then I came around to Roy's point of view and stronghold (i.e. implying that there was a word missing -- "forte"), and finally my client came back to me saying, "ils veulent dire la ville... comme à Berlin, qui fut divisée en son temps en "secteurs".

If anybody comes across any information about this Berlin-like situation, please post it here.

All-in-all, it's an interesting footnote in the history of WWI.

08:34 May 22, 2013 

research provided by Roy vd Heijden, suggest you keep the Fr name and put (Tournai stronghold) in ( )

22:51 May 21, 2013 

I would disagree with Nikki and go with something related to the reference Roy gave. I think the word "place" belongs to military vocabulary here, "place" meaning a location you hold for strategical reasons. It could be a city, a village, a fortress. I would just translate "Tournai remained under British command until July 20, 1919"

21:34 May 21, 2013 

Thanks Nikki!

21:10 May 21, 2013 

I reckon that the choice of "place de Tournai" is symbolic as Helena suggests and that you should leave it in the original, in italics for example. Place names (or should I say "names of places" so as to avoid confusion) should not be translated.
Wikipedia has a spot of history on "place de Tournai" if you are curious!