Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

[cahn]

All Yuletide requests are out!

Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!

-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)

Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!

-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French

-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...

Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links

Comments

Re: Casanova

[cahn]

That is a fascinating story, haha, that's awesome paranoia.

I believe Fritz does say "beau homme", not "gentil"

Hm. I will cut the translator a little more slack than you -- American English, at least, doesn't really say "beautiful man" the way that the French (and Germans?) say "beau homme." The closest translation might be "handsome man" or "good-looking man," although that doesn't really have the same connotation, and "fine-looking man" might actually be fairly close (though "fine" alone does tend to make one think of virtues other than one's looks, so I see your point).

Gutenberg uses the Arthur Machen translation, yuuuuup. Right -- note to self to buy a newer translation if/when I end up reading this. (And yes, in general, Gutenberg would have to be < 1960 for copyright.)

this edition allegedly contains passages invented by the (French) translator.

lol, wow!! That's... not something I'm used to seeing from a translator :)

Re: Casanova

[selenak]

A man still gets more commonly described as "gutaussehend" - handsome - than as "schön" - Beautiful - but "ein schöner Mann" is still a valid phrasing occasionally used.

(Now what really gets debated is whether Napoleon's remark about Goethe upon meeting him - "Voilà un homme" - should have the "homme" translated as "Mann" or "Mensch", i.e. "man" or "human being" - could be either in French.) :)

#FrenchGermanTranslations

Re: the alterations in Casanova's original text - blame the 19th century mores again. I remember an article that lists the most annoying examples, I shall see whether I can find it for you.

Re: Casanova

[mildred_of_midgard]

Oh, damn. Wow, that is one complicated history, and of *course* the only version I can read is a highly inaccurate one. Dammit!

Thank you for sharing the history of the memoirs. That was super fascinating, even without the warning that I'm reading a very bastardized copy if I read the Gutenberg one.

That's... not something I'm used to seeing from a translator :)

Yeah, it was a *thing*. I would love to see the list if selenak can dig it up.

Re "fine", when I read that, I took it as meaning "good-looking" in rather old-fashioned English, and the Oxford English Dictionary agrees with me: "Of a person or thing: remarkably attractive; good-looking. Now somewhat dated, except U.S. slang (originally and chiefly African-American), of a person: sexually attractive," with examples of the older meaning up to the early 20th century. So since the Machen translation is over 100 years old, I'm willing to go with "good-looking" as the originally intended meaning.

Re: Casanova

[cahn]

Yeah, that's fair, and that's how I read it too (as good-looking in old-fashioned English), although it's also true no one would speak like this today.

I just did a search on amazon, and it's kind of amazing how little there is in the way of Casanova that isn't the bastardized version (and in particular, that none of it seems to be available in e-book).