HIS 102, 112, 135

Translation

Key is to give students an image of the the subject to be transalted, sch as this newspaper.

Another way, is for students to double check the transaltion of a passage thzat has been trnsalted by Google transalterter. Students would heva to use a dictionary to do that.

Translating a phrase or a document from one language to another seems like such a simple thing that many take the process for granted. (If you don't know any other languages than English; well, you just won't be able to do any translating!) Translation is something that is not that easy, yet it is so important for historians of non-US history. Simply put, you cannot study Russian history if you cannot read and understand Russian. Despite the appearance of electronic translator devices and seven software (or apps) to automatically translate materials--Just have a look at a Google search result for a foreign phrase--and you'll see how deceptively easy it looks.

Translation is an art (some languages are more difficult than others). I talk a bit about this in my notes on Franz Kafka (You can also have a look at Professor Poulakis' comments on the difficulty of translating Kafka--she also has more general comments about translating.)

Sure, there are many free online translation services available in which the software automatically translates pages, but we are not going to do that in this short exercise. Luckily, for our purposes, there are many English-French dictionaries online. Here are three

• The ARTFL project
• French-English Dictionary
• French » English dictionary with thousands of words and phrases

Our subject will be the Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of the Woman and the Female Citizen) by Olympe de Gouges from 1791. This was an important document meant to supplement the original La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen) from 1789, the start of the French Revolution.

You will translate only the Preamble (just, a few, simple, short paragraphs):

Les mères, les filles, les surs, représentantes de la nation, demandent d'être constituées en Assemblée nationale.

Les mères, les filles, les surs, représentantes de la nation, Considérant que l'ignorance, l'oubli ou le mépris des droits de la femme, sont les seules causes des malheurs publics et de la corruption des gouvernements, ont résolu d'exposer dans une déclaration solennelle, les droits naturels inaliénables et sacrés de la femme, afin que cette déclaration, constamment présente à tous les membres du corps social, leur rappelle sans cesse leurs droits et leurs devoirs, afin que les actes du pouvoir des femmes, et ceux du pouvoir des hommes, pouvant être à chaque instant comparés avec le but de toute institution politique, en soient plus respectés, afin que les réclamations des citoyennes, fondées désormais sur des principes simples et incontestables, tournent toujours au maintien de la Constitution, des bonnes murs, et au bonheur de tous

Les mères, les filles, les surs, représentantes de la nation, En conséquence, le sexe supérieur, en beauté comme en courage, dans les souffrances maternelles, reconnaît et déclare, en présence et sous les auspices de l'Etre suprême, les Droits suivants de la Femme et de la Citoyenne.

We will then discuss your translation and the choices that you made in deciding on specific words/phrases. We will also compare your work to standard translations, including those by software.