Le ventre est encore fécond, d'où a surgi la bête immonde

English translation: the womb that sprung the abhorrent beast is still fertile

15:33 Nov 23, 2016
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
French term or phrase: Le ventre est encore fécond, d'où a surgi la bête immonde
It is from a study on alt.right in the USA

My attempt would be

"The womb from where the hideous beast crawled from is still fertile"

It is a quote from from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistible_Rise_of_Arturo_... only have the sentence in French...
Andre Dumoulin
Panama
Local time: 17:43
English translation:the womb that sprung the abhorrent beast is still fertile
Explanation:
or

that womb is still fertile, the one that sprung the abhorrent beast

Selected response from:

Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:43
Grading comment
Thanks to all; this is the one I prefer, as very creative.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +4The beast that bore him is in heat again
philgoddard
4 +2the womb that sprung the abhorrent beast is still fertile
Daryo
3The womb whence the foul beast emerged is still fecond.
Marian Vieyra
3Again swells the womb from whence the foul beast crawled
B D Finch


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


12 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Le ventre est encore fécond, d\'où a surgi la bête immonde.
The womb whence the foul beast emerged is still fecond.


Explanation:
If you need to keep a literary tone, I suggest something like the above.
BTW, your suggestion is fine, except for the two 'froms'. You could use 'emerge' instead to get round this - The womb from where the hideous beast emerged...

Marian Vieyra
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  philgoddard: I think this sounds too antiquated for a play written in 1941. Also, the correct spelling is fecund.
5 mins
  -> You're right about the spelling. Even though the play is modern, I think the sentence is quite biblical in tone - a bit Rosemary's Baby.
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19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Le ventre est encore fécond, d\'où a surgi la bête immonde.
the womb that sprung the abhorrent beast is still fertile


Explanation:
or

that womb is still fertile, the one that sprung the abhorrent beast



Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:43
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in SerbianSerbian, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 8
Grading comment
Thanks to all; this is the one I prefer, as very creative.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Marian Vieyra: I like the use of 'sprung'.
5 mins
  -> Thanks!

neutral  B D Finch: ... whence sprang?
1 hr
  -> agree, it's better

agree  Carol Gullidge: the womb that SPAWNED the abhorrent beast is still fertile OR ...is fertile/ripe once again//yes but spawn also has acquired some very negative connotations that are missing in "sprang", etc
2 hrs
  -> many possible variations ... "spawned" sounds right also. Thanks!
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14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
Le ventre est encore fécond, d\'où a surgi la bête immonde.
The beast that bore him is in heat again


Explanation:
The play was written in German, by Bertolt Brecht, and the hideous beast is Hitler:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bête_immonde

I'm a big believer in making up your own translation rather than scurrying off to see how others have rendered it, but I did find this, which I rather like:

[Translator Stephen] Sharkey was quoted in 2011 “I think in the epilogue, Brecht acknowledges that the world fought back and got rid of this threat, this dreadful tyrant [Hitler]. But with the final line – the beast that bore him is in heat again – that’s Brecht’s warning.”

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Note added at 22 mins (2016-11-23 15:55:47 GMT)
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If you read German, the last line is
Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch, aus dem das kroch.
So the French preserves the internal rhyme.


    Reference: http://www.phoenixtheatreensemble.org/resistible-rise-arturo...
philgoddard
United States
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Helen Shiner: Frequently quoted in English (in this format). It would be quite strange to retranslate it, though, of course, why not?
7 mins

agree  GILOU
1 hr

agree  Verginia Ophof
8 hrs

agree  Yvonne Gallagher
2 days 34 mins
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Le ventre est encore fécond, d\'où a surgi la bête immonde.
Again swells the womb from whence the foul beast crawled


Explanation:
This suggestion is based on the German (a language of which I have extremely limited knowledge), with due acknowledgement to Google translate, especially for translating "kroch".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2016-11-23 17:42:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Beginning the line with the use of assonance and repeated "W" sounds, contrasting with the harsher consonants of the last three words seemed to preserve something of the original, even though it lost the rhyme.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 20 hrs (2016-11-24 11:37:06 GMT)
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http://www.greenfacts.org/fr/glossaire/def/fecondite.htm
"Fécondité et fertilité. La différence entre les deux concepts est similaire à celle existant entre la réalité et sa possibilité. La fécondité fait référence aux enfants eus et la fertilité à la "capacité" de les avoir. On peut être fertile et n'avoir encore eu aucun enfant, de même qu'on peut avoir eu des enfants par le passé (être fécond) et, par contre, avoir perdu sa fertilité par après."

I don't know why this French writer thinks the English confuse the two terms, in sociology at least, we don't:

https://www.ined.fr/fr/tout-savoir-population/memos-demo/ana...
"Fertilité et fécondité ne se confondent pas, même si l’anglais permute les deux termes :

fertilité = fecundity
fécondité = fertility

La fertilité est la capacité biologique à concevoir, tandis que la fécondité, notion démographique, est le nombre d’enfants mis au monde."

B D Finch
France
Local time: 23:43
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 43

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Jennifer White: FWIW "from" is redundant here as "whence" = "from where"/fair point - just an observation (and matters little!)
1 hr
  -> I know, but I didn't like "womb whence" and thought it scanned better with "from", though just a slight pause would do..

neutral  Daryo: I do like the rythm of this sentence, but "est encore fécond" is a continuing possibility [= it might happen again] while "Again swells the womb" sounds like it's happening again.
7 hrs
  -> You've got it the wrong way round: see my added note above.

neutral  Helen Shiner: Unfortunately, the French is not a good translation of the German. "Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch" essentially means "the womb is still fertile"./I think it is quite clear from the GER what is meant.
21 hrs
  -> It looks to me as though "fruchtbar" means either/both "fertile" and "fecund". Which meaning is selected depends on the argument of the rest of the text being translated, which the Asker must decide.
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