I love the song, Hors-Saison by Francis Cabrel, though have some problem with translating one part (that feels a bit awkward to me).
For the entire song, see:
http://www.paroles.net/chansons/15766.htm
The section I'm struggling with a bit is:
La colère océane est trop près
Les tourments la condamnent
Aux écrans de fumée
Personne ne s'éloigne du quai
If I were translating that, I'd try:
"The angry ocean is too near.
Torments condemn it
to displays of mist [smoke screens]
No one moves away from the jetty [wharf]. "
My first line seems ok.
However,
(1) I don't like my translation, "Torments condemn it," and I'm not sure how to translate "écrans de fumée."
I looked it up in the TLF
http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv4/showps.exe?p=combi.htm;java=no;
and seemed to get "smokescreen" for "écran de fumée."
Écran de fumée. Fumée produite pour dissimuler des opérations de troupes, de navires. Comme un croiseur émet un écran de fumées."
But that doesn't quite feel write in translating the section.
(2) And "Personne ne s'éloigne du quai," seems to be "no one moves away from the jetty," but I would think the writer should be saying, "no one moves out on the jetty," because of the angry ocean. Is the use of "du quai," by the writer, correct. It doesn't seem to mean "moves out . . ." but rather seems to just mean, "moves from," which doesn't make that much sense to me.
Anyone care to translate those four lines from the song for me:
"La colère océane est trop près
Les tourments la condamnent
Aux écrans de fumée
Personne ne s'éloigne du quai"
For the entire song, see:
http://www.paroles.net/chansons/15766.htm
The section I'm struggling with a bit is:
La colère océane est trop près
Les tourments la condamnent
Aux écrans de fumée
Personne ne s'éloigne du quai
If I were translating that, I'd try:
"The angry ocean is too near.
Torments condemn it
to displays of mist [smoke screens]
No one moves away from the jetty [wharf]. "
My first line seems ok.
However,
(1) I don't like my translation, "Torments condemn it," and I'm not sure how to translate "écrans de fumée."
I looked it up in the TLF
http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv4/showps.exe?p=combi.htm;java=no;
and seemed to get "smokescreen" for "écran de fumée."
Écran de fumée. Fumée produite pour dissimuler des opérations de troupes, de navires. Comme un croiseur émet un écran de fumées."
But that doesn't quite feel write in translating the section.
(2) And "Personne ne s'éloigne du quai," seems to be "no one moves away from the jetty," but I would think the writer should be saying, "no one moves out on the jetty," because of the angry ocean. Is the use of "du quai," by the writer, correct. It doesn't seem to mean "moves out . . ." but rather seems to just mean, "moves from," which doesn't make that much sense to me.
Anyone care to translate those four lines from the song for me:
"La colère océane est trop près
Les tourments la condamnent
Aux écrans de fumée
Personne ne s'éloigne du quai"