déferler (pour le vent)

14:23 Feb 9, 2010 

Thanks for your suggestion. I find the sentence contradictory too, but it is a sentence from G. Flaubert, Madame Bovary. Thank you.

14:12 Feb 9, 2010 

contrary to all KudoZ rules, but it seems we are shadow boxing if we have to guess at what you want to say. Assuming what you want to translate is the sentence quoted above, here's my crack at it: "It sometimes happened that gusts of wind, flurries of moist sea air, burst across the Pays de Caux plateau , carrying a salty freshness to the fields far inland".

Rafale (coup de vent violent, mais de courte durée) and brise (Vent léger et frais (considéré comme agréâble) are contradictory, so I feel a "workaround" was necessary.

13:46 Feb 9, 2010 

Yes but I have some difficulties to translate this sentence and try to find other options... :)

13:42 Feb 9, 2010 

Déferler isn't in there!

13:22 Feb 9, 2010 

Well I have no other context than this sentence : "Il arrivait parfois des rafales de vent, brises de la mer qui, roulant d'un bond sur tout le plateau du pays de Caux, apportaient, jusqu'au loin dans les champs, une fraîcheur salée." In this case, it seems that gusts of wind come intermittently ? Thank you !

13:16 Feb 9, 2010 

While I agree that "sweep across" CAN translate déferler, I think it is important to note that déferler often, if not always, carries with it a notion of sudden arrival, abrupt violence. "Sweep across" on the other hand has more the notion of an ongoing state. Since you are talking about rafales, i.e. which are not a permanent state, except one such with intermittence, then I imagine some other word might be more appropriate. The wind hit? Was unleashed? Gusts of wind lashed the prairies? The word in its full context would help.