flétrir

English translation: I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

13:36 Jun 2, 2013

French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature

French term or phrase: flétrir

Still dealing with the Theseus legend. Minos, king of Crete, is a somewhat bureaucratic lawmaker who keeps the monster, the Minotaur, chained in the labyrinth. He says to Theseus who has brought the sacrifical victims to Crete:

"Mon cœur saigne à la pensée de ces victimes que je veux croire innocentes, mais il en va du monstre comme de la guerre, que je flétris, et ne me hâte pas d'abolir."

I read this as something along the lines of:
"My heart bleeds at the thought of the victims whom I want to believe innocent, but it's the same with the monster as with war, I condemn it, and I am in no hurry to abolish it."

Here, "flétrir" appears to have its sense of "Frapper d'une condamnation infamante". But that seems to contradict "ne me hâte pas d'abolir".

TIA!

DLyons KudoZ activity Questions: 83 (none open) Answers: 4291 Ireland
Local time: 06:55

English translation:I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

Explanation:
Not sure whether a comma or a dash works best after the first part, but this might get the idea across.

Selected response from:

Huw Davies
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:55

Grading comment

That's a nice play on words Huw.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

Huw Davies

4 +1

condemn

Carol Gullidge

Discussion entries: 10

Answers

21 hrs confidence:

I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

Explanation:
Not sure whether a comma or a dash works best after the first part, but this might get the idea across.

Huw Davies
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:55
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

That's a nice play on words Huw.

24 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

condemn

Explanation:
Collins Robert:

flétrir [2] condemn... (Hist) brand

This makes sense to me, and is what I would have posted anyway, even if Collins hadn't corroborated it!

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Note added at 30 mins (2013-06-02 14:06:41 GMT)
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Sorry, I see that this is exactly what you posted in your question!

'Brand' sounds a little harsher, but won't stand on its own. Maybe you could consider changing that last 'and' to 'yet', although I can understand why you might be reluctant to do this.

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Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2013-06-03 19:46:00 GMT) Post-grading
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Yes, I'm sure you were, but the term in the question is just "flétrir",

Which of course is not to say that I disagree with your choice!

Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:55
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 80

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks Carol. I was undecided between and/but/yet/while...

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flétrir

English translation: I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

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flétrir

English translation: I loathe it, but am loath to see the back of it

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