Talk:Clair de lune (poem)

English Translation

This seems more direct: Your soul is a choice landscape / with charming masks and Bergamo dialects / playing the lute and dancing and somewhat / sad beneath their fancy disgises. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:53, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Is there not a "howler" at the beginning of the translation? Que does not mean where, but is a relative pronoun with paysage as its antecedent. It is the object of charmant, which is verbal, a participle, not adjectival. If it were adjectival it would have to have a plural form, wouldn't it? I agree it is extremely difficult to translate these lines both faithfully and gracefully.

Also, "the water streams" is a terrible translation of "les jets d'eau". It makes one picture runnels on the ground, not fountains, which are what is meant. Again, very difficult to find a decent translation.

I put forward these comments slightly timidly, as my French is very amateurish. Perhaps I shall be told I am wrong. Seadowns (talk) 22:28, 9 October 2017 (I have said.UTC)

Later -- I have found various French commentaries, which show the construction of the opening words of line 2 is as I have said (save that one commentary suggests that the antecedent of que might possible be ame - sorry no accents). Word for word, "charming which, go masks and Bergamasques". I will try to produce a presentable translation.

The following is my best effort at present.

 Your soul is a chosen landscape
 On which masks and Bergamasques cast enchantment as they go,
 Playing the lute, and dancing, and all but
 Sad beneath their fantasy-disguises.

 Singing all the while, in the minor mode,
 Of all-conquering love and life so kind to them
 They do not seem to believe in their good fortune, 
 And their song mingles with the moonlight,
 
 With the calm moonlight, sad and lovely,  
 Which makes the birds dream in the trees,
 And the plumes of the fountains weep in ecstasy,
 The tall, slender plumes of the fountains among the marble sculptures.

Seadowns (talk) 14:03, 11 October 2017 (UTC) 92.26.169.141 (talk) 19:44, 16 October 2017 (UTC)

I proceeded to incorporate the more accurate translation above, as the original one was indeed mistaking a participle for an adjective, as pointed out by Seadowns. The construction of line 2 is basically aller + present participle (~ "to go around doing X") wrapped in an object relative clause. In other words, it is derived by relativizing masques et bergamasques vont charmant un paysage choisi ("masks and Bergamasque dances go around enchanting a chosen landscape") to the object. "Charmant" cannot be an adjective to "masques et bergamasques" ; if it were, it would bear plural agreement. Munkassar (talk) 14:07, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

Copyright violations

It seems to me that both the literal and poetic English translations currently in this article are likely copyrighted in the US and other countries where a literal translation is still subject to copyright protection. The poetic translation's source includes a 1999 copyright date and no appropriate license. The literal translation does not, but you can't assume it's not covered by copyright based solely on the absence of a notice. Alex Cohn (let's chat!) 22:41, 19 April 2017 (UTC)