Typos aside, the Ward version is clearly more faithful to the original text, but to me, it's stilted and awkward to read. Je prendrai l'autobus a duex heures et j'arriverai dans l'apres-midi. L'aisle de vieillards est a Marengo, a quatre-vingts kilometres d'Alger. J'ai recu un telegramme de l'aisle: "Mere decedee. Now, here's the original text in French from the 1957 Gallimard publication (minus the accents that aren't simple to include):Īujourd'hui, maman est morte. I'll take the two o'clock bus and get there in the afternoon. The old people's home is at Marengo, about eighty kilometers from Algiers. Faithfully yours.' That doesn't mean anything. I got a telegram from the home: 'Mother deceased. With the two-o'clock bus I should get there well before nightfall. The home for aged persons is at Marengo some fifty miles from Algiers. Which leaves the matter doubtful it could have been yesterday. The telegram from the home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. On the surface, I prefer the Gilbert translation as it's much more natural to my eyes and ears (even if it is a bit out-dated): Gilbert: Here are the introductory lines from both. They both exhibit the flaws and choices that characterize the difficulties in translating from any language to another language (even one so simple as French to English): colloquialism vs. Camus may be my favorite writer next to one Henry Charles Bukowski and I have the Gilbert and Ward translations.
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