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réponses bien terrées

English translation: multi-layered responses

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:réponses bien terrées
English translation:multi-layered responses
Entered by: Clare Hogg

15:50 Apr 21, 2011
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / sculpture
French term or phrase: réponses bien terrées
I am (still!!) translating a high-brow, poetic/dreamlike and very fanciful (i.e. incomprehensible!) text about a sculptor (XXXX) from the preface of a catalogue containing pictures of his work.

I´m struggling to understand the intended meaning of "terré" in the expression "réponses bien terrées" which appears in the below paragraph.

By way of additional context, this paragraph focuses on a sculpture which the sculptor created specially for the writer while he was staying at the latter's house in Martinique. This sculptor's pieces are, according to this writer, influenced by African art to some extent, but not exclusively, hence (presumably) why he labels the beholders' question in the below paragraph as "aberrant".

Could it mean "well-founded responses" maybe? If that's the intended meaning, then I don't think my translation is poetic enough for this type of text....

Thanks in advance for any ideas you can give. MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

"Je tiens de lui une grande sculpture, qu'il a realisée ici, en Martinique..........Ceux qui l'admirent demandent d'instinct:
Clare Hogg
Spain
Local time: 19:27
multi-layered responses
Explanation:
following on from discussion about possibly hidden meanings and Petitavoine's notion of mounding or "earthing-up" as is done e.g with potatoes as well as sugarcane and the multi-level "laminates" mentioned by her.

if you need to keep the "earth" reference it could possibly be "earthy, multi-layered..."

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Note added at 3 days8 hrs (2011-04-25 00:20:15 GMT) Post-grading
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glad to help:-)
Selected response from:

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 18:27
Grading comment
I think your translation captures the notion of hidden/buried while being meaningful to an English reader. Thanks!!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +2well-grounded responses
Carol Gullidge
4multi-layered responses
Yvonne Gallagher
3abstruse response
Lara Barnett
3embedded answers
ormiston


Discussion entries: 5





  

Answers


31 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
well-grounded responses


Explanation:
just an educated (which might also work instead of "well-grounded"!) guess.

well informed / educated, or any synonyms of this might also fit the bill

Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:27
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 80

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Verginia Ophof: well-ground·ed (wlgroundd) adj. 1. Adequately versed in a subject. 2. Having a sound basis; well-founded.
42 mins
  -> many thanks Verginia :)

agree  Laura Imogen McLeish
2 days 18 hrs
  -> many thanks Laura!
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57 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
abstruse response


Explanation:
I would go with the idea of something hidden or buried underground, rather than something that is just simply "grounded". I would say that the idea here is that the answers or responses are not very clear.

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Note added at 7 hrs (2011-04-21 23:00:35 GMT)
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Or even a "hidden meaning".

Lara Barnett
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:27
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
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15 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
embedded answers


Explanation:
maybe this conveys the idea that the answers are there but under the surface & can be 'dug out'

ormiston
Local time: 19:27
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 24
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21 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
multi-layered responses


Explanation:
following on from discussion about possibly hidden meanings and Petitavoine's notion of mounding or "earthing-up" as is done e.g with potatoes as well as sugarcane and the multi-level "laminates" mentioned by her.

if you need to keep the "earth" reference it could possibly be "earthy, multi-layered..."

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 days8 hrs (2011-04-25 00:20:15 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

glad to help:-)

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 18:27
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 40
Grading comment
I think your translation captures the notion of hidden/buried while being meaningful to an English reader. Thanks!!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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