l'événement

Salut tout le monde,

I have a sentence, a supposed pearl of wisdom, that seems quite easy to translate, yet the translation sounds like a dud.

Un homme qui vécu sur un sol rien faire qu'y manger et dormir ne verra dans l'événement qu'un changement d'habitudes.

a man who lived close to the  ground without doing anything but eating and sleeping  will not see in the happening  but a change of habits.

… Une idée?

Vit Novak

Bonjour Vit,

Let me give this a go:

Un homme qui vécu sur un sol rien faire qu'y manger et dormir ne verra dans l'événement qu'un changement d'habitudes.

A man who lived on a land, doing nothing there but eating and sleeping, will see nothing as days passe but a change/evolution of habits.

Like some previous quotes, this one is fairly abstract. However, I think the key issue with these sentences is that they tend to use either old words, or word used in their more classical sense (hence why I haven't translated literally).

Does that help?

   -   Mitchell

Merci Mitchell,

I admit that I cheated a little: I did not give any background to the quote.  You see, the words have a meaning and I want to know the raw, basic version.   Yet, your translation fits well.

The sentence  belongs to Pyrrhus et Cinéas de Simone de Beauvoir.   It is used by Guillaume Sbalchiero in his (and Monica's) book Rencontres Clandestines, a book of discussions between Guillaume and Monica Bellucci. At one point Guillaume poses himself this question:  Et soi, n'être que spectateur? The quote appears in his musings… He is a young guy of 27 who is overwhelmed by Bellucci, so attempts -foolishly- appear intellectual. Luckily, Bellucci always saves the situation.  It is a good book.

Vít