Le Produit Fini

The Finished Product

I have a finished product! My own translation of the first nine chapters of Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, complete with pictures! (I got the pictures of the drawings off of google. They are beautiful, and it was cool to see them in color because the ones in my copy are in black and white.) I would like to say merci again to Madame MacDermott for helping me out with some tricky parts. I will post one more little excerpt that I really like but please check out the entirety of my translation here!!!!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E3MGjjG_s6Vfs5C0nW1u4-ToFkOGKeueYPE_JnVfFFg/edit

I read this one article today from the New York Times published at the 50th anniversary of the Little Prince. I learned some interesting things including that the invasive baobabs on the little prince's planet represent Nazism. It makes sense considering this book was written during World War II by a man who had to flee France because it was invaded. I wish I had known that before I read the book. (If you don't understand what baobabs have to do with anything, read the translation!)

Anyways, here is one last little excerpt for you, from Chapter 7. The little prince gets annoyed when the narrator, focused on fixing his broken down airplane, dismisses his seemingly irrelevant troubles:

“I knew a planet where there was a crimson man. He had never smelled a flower. He had never looked at a star. He had never loved anyone. He had never done anything other than addition. And all day he repeated like you: ‘I am a serious man! I am a serious man!’ and that made him swell with pride. But that’s not a man, that’s a mushroom!

“A what?”

“A mushroom!”

The little prince was now all pale with anger.

“For millions of years flowers have grown thorns. For millions of years sheep have eaten those flowers anyway. And that’s not serious enough to try to understand why they devote themselves to so much effort to grow thorns if they don’t serve any purpose? It’s not important, the war between sheep and flowers? It’s not serious and more important than a fat red man’s additions? And if I knew a one-of-a-kind flower, that doesn’t exist anywhere, except on my planet, and that a little sheep could wipe it out in a single bite, like that, one morning, without realizing what he was doing, that’s not important?”  

He blushed, then restarted:

“If someone loves a flower of which only one specimen exists in millions of stars, that is enough to make him happy when he looks at them. He says to himself: ‘My flower is there somewhere...’ But if the sheep eats the flower, it is for him like, suddenly, all the stars went out! And that’s not important!”

He could say nothing more. He burst suddenly into sobs. Night was falling. I had dropped my tools. I ignored my hammer, my bolt, thirst, and death. There was on a star, a planet, mine, Earth, a little prince to console. I took him in my arms. I rocked  him. I said to him: “The flower that you love is not in danger... I will draw him a muzzle, your sheep... I will draw

you armour for your flower... I...” I didn’t know what more to say. I was feeling very inept. I didn’t know how to reach him, to get back to him... It is so mysterious, the land of tears.

Sources:

"French Present Participle - Le Participe présent." About.com French Language. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2013. <http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/presentparticiple.htm>.

Landers, Clifford E. Literary Translation: A Practical Guide. N.p.: n.p., 2001. Multilingual Matters. Ebook Collection (EBSCO Host). Web. 28 Feb. 2013. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=c0d77986-855f-4bfd-8226-de59c08ed92e%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=28&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=nlebk&AN=90960>.

Reif, Rita. "ARTS/ARTIFACTS; A Charming Prince Turns 50, His Luster Intact." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Sept. 1993. Web. 31 Mar. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/19/books/arts-artifacts-a-charming-prince-turns-50-his-luster-intact.html?pagewanted=2>.