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Aujourd'hui, maman est morte.
May 17, 2012 - 1:10am
What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be
Quote:
For the modern American reader, few lines in French literature are as famous as the opening of Albert Camus’s “L’Étranger”: “Aujourd’hui, maman est morte.” Nitty-gritty tense issues aside, the first sentence of “The Stranger” is so elementary that even a schoolboy with a base knowledge of French could adequately translate it. So why do the pros keep getting it wrong?
Within the novel’s first sentence, two subtle and seemingly minor translation decisions have the power to change the way we read everything that follows. What makes these particular choices prickly is that they poke at a long-standing debate among the literary community: whether it is necessary for a translator to have some sort of special affinity with a work’s author in order to produce the best possible text.
I was feeling that way today (whichever translation you favour), watching cynical laws being rubber-stamped. But this evening, hope returns - like the Mary Ellen Carter, maman rises again!
When I started the article, Catchfire, and saw the translation of that sentence as "Mother died today," the first thing I thought was, "Shouldn't it be, 'Today, Mother died'?" I didn't think of the issue of which way of saying "Maman" was too formal or too childish though, and that was interesting. I agree that it should be "Maman" because I think most of us in the English-speaking world who learn basic French learn that children call their mothers "Maman" as their name. And I agree that while "Mom" is probably the equivalent in English, it doesn't sound as soft as "Maman" and that perhaps signals a language difference that could be culturally reflected too. "Mom" or "Mum" IS too informal and blunt, whereas "Maman" really has no sound AND meaning equivalent in English.
So interesting - thanks for posting! This is one of those books that has been sitting on my bookshelf forever but that I've never gotten around to reading. I guess I should do something about that. I think I started it once while I was in university and never got around to finishing it.
Also, something else I was thinking about "Mother" versus "Mom" or "Mama" or "Maman"...
If you've read the "Anne" novels, which were written in the early 1900's through to the 30's, "Mother" is actually an affectionate term, not a formal term, that older children and adults use with their mothers. Anne's children, who adore her, and who have very close and loving relationships with her, call her "Mother" throughout "Anne of Ingleside", "Rainbow Valley", and "Rilla of Ingleside". Walter calls Anne "Mother dearwums" and her other children all call her "Mother" very affectionately. And in Rainbow Valley, the motherless children of the new minister, whose beloved mother died in recent memory, all call her "Mother" whenever they refer to her, also quite affectionately.
So meanings change over time, and I think it's quite possible that when that first translation was done by Stuart Gilbert in the 1940's, the tone behind the word "Mother" as a name might have been more in keeping with "Maman" than it would be now.
And considering that, for instance, Montgomery wrote "Anne of Ingleside" in 1939 (where she had children calling their mother "Mother" as an affectionate name, not as a formal one) and Camus wrote "L'Etranger" (sorry, don't know where the accents are on my keyboard) in 1942, a mere 3 years later, then perhaps "Mother" isn't a bad translation if that was a term commonly used by children towards their mothers in an affectionate but not childish manner during the period when Camus wrote the book?
I translate it as "Today, my mama died."
Perfect! (IMO).
Maybe for the same reason they keep getting the title wrong?