Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 September 11

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September 11

French translation "Special Fire Envoy"?

In editing Zaki Mazboudi, I found this sentence "Entre 1976 et 1982, il a été désigné envoyé spécial de feu le président Élias Sarkis" at https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/395276/Deces_de_Zaki_Mazboudi.html . What is a reasonable English transation of "envoyé spécial de feu"? --Soman (talk) 11:47, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

"envoyé spécial de feu le président" = "special envoy of the late president". DuncanHill (talk) 12:18, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Does that mean he was an envoy before the president shuffled off this mortal coil, or that he is an envoy now, even though the president is off "pining for the fjords" ? SinisterLefty (talk) 15:59, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Context with the real world would mean he had been envoy when the president was alive. Corpses cannot send envoys. --Jayron32 16:35, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

No, but an envoy isn't necessarily recalled the moment the person who sent him dies, any more than an ambassador is. SinisterLefty (talk) 19:27, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

"Between 1976 and 1982 he was the special envoy of the late president Élias Sarkis" Sarkis died in 1985, so the whole period of Mazboudi's special envoyship was during the life of the late president. DuncanHill (talk) 19:48, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Thanks, that clarifies it. SinisterLefty (talk) 20:09, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

The "late" part of that sentence is not needed. The fact that the president died later is not relevant to the sentence. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:52, 11 September 2019 (UTC)