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il dépose l’armure qu’il a peut-être l'habitude de porter ailleurs
English translation: He removes /emerges from the tough outer shell he normally wears/hides behind elsewher
16:14 Apr 12, 2017
French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / In A Book About Collective Intelligence
French term or phrase:il dépose l’armure qu’il a peut-être l'habitude de porter ailleurs
Contexte:
5 - Transformer ses vulnérabilités en forces
Le mastermindien « idéal » : Accepte sa vulnérabilité lorsqu’il est dans ce groupe Mastermind. Il dépose l’armure qu’il a peut-être l’habitude de porter ailleurs, dans des lieux de pouvoirs. Il sait qu’elle ne lui sert à rien avec ses pairs. Au contraire, elle le ralentit et l’empêche d’avancer. Il comprend qu’il peut apprendre à montrer sa vulnérabilité, qu’elle ne sera jamais utilisée contre lui.
I think it must have something to do with wearing a façade.
Explanation: Perhaps this fits in. Building a tough outer shell to hide you true emotions.
Is It True That People Who Hide Their Feelings Usually Care The Most ... www.experienceproject.com/question-answer/Is...Hide...Feeli... 23 Nov 2013 - I hide my feelings because I don't like looking weak. ... It usually is fear of being hurt, rather than neediness, that causes that tough outer shell. Three Voices of Art Therapy (Psychology Revivals): Image, Client, ... https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=113503768X Tessa Dalley, Gabrielle Rifkind, Kim Terry - 2013 - Medical By looking in his immediate area of experience, he could begin to think about his ... he had built up his outer shell which formed the basis of his social interaction to the point where he could function only with this mask or false persona. ... less threatening means of communicating his feelings and difficulties and thereby ...
Although it is acceptable and grammatically normal to do so in FR, I think in En these days its sits ill to ASSUME this 'mastermind' is a 'he' — I'd like to suggest that in a context like this, it might be preferable to use 'they' as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Thanks, everyone, for your input, but I decided, given the overall tone of my translated text, that the rendition I came up myself with will serve me just fine.
But I will be choosing the best offering here, anyway, after at least 24 hours have elapsed.
Yes, as I addressed in my earlier comment. But the fact remains that 'armour' is a very commonly used image in this sort of field, and conveys a quite different notion from certain other possibilities also sugegsted. "Lowering one's guard" is, however, yet another totally different image, which I really do feel would be quite "inappropriate" here.
Barbara said earlier: References to armor, etc., are inappropriate for the surrounding context in the original and of my translated text. So I suggested "skin". Maybe something like "Dropped his guard" could work as well, although it is not exactly the same...
as sugested by BCSantos below is the only thing that readily comes to mind that is similar to this notion of 'armour' in the source text — though we should note in passing that FR has the term 'carapace' for that sort of thing, so if the writer used 'armour' instead, it may well have been a very deleiberate choice. Note that a 'shell' may be something that builds up of its own accord; think sclerosing, think an accretion of limescale; whereas 'armour' is something that has been carefully, even lovingly, and certainly deliberately, forged to protect its owner — in this sense, the images are actually quite different.
Given how very common images of 'armour' are in such contexts, and how the source text itself uses this very effective image, I find it really hard to see how this could in any way be "inappropriate for the surrounding context" — if that were the case, perhaps it would be helpful if you were to give us some of that surrounding context that shows just WHY this might be the case? If you want us to help you, yet have already rejected the very common, standard solution, then you really do need to give us the context that explains why? If it is "inappropriate for the surrounding context" of your "translated text", then maybe you need to consider what it is about your translated text that makes this unsuitable? Perhaps in that case you might need to review the way you have handled it up to this point?
References to armor, etc., are inappropriate for the surrounding context in the original and of my translated text.
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Answers
50 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
il dépose l’armure qu’il a peut-être l\\\'habitude de porter ailleurs
He lays down the armour he is used to wearing elsewhere
Explanation: As it is not an existing expression in French and while it is symbolic, I think you should stick to the image, as the English reader will have to do as much thinking with "armour" as the French reader.
Claire Elizondo Belgium Local time: 12:33 Works in field Native speaker of: French
peer agreement (net): +3