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20:10 Sep 8, 2011
English to French translations [PRO] Art/Literary - History / Cars
English term or phrase:carriage
This is as much a history question as a language question:
I'm not sure about the translation of carriage here. Would a tycoon in the 20's be driving a motor car? And was is 'normal' to have one as the text suggests, if you were part of the 'gentry'?
Contex:
The Belle Époque, with its cult of femininity, its newly generated wealth and refined and leisured luxury, set the scene for another great age of the diamond. Newly discovered South African deposits enthralled a clientele of dashing, jewel-bedecked Maharajahs, Oriental potentates, Russian princesses, and most of all fabulously wealthy American tycoons, magnates and industrialists, for whom the diamond was an essential possession, on a par with a country house, ***carriage*** and ancestral portraits.
...une clientèle de Maharajas, nababs orientaux et princesses russes aimant briller de mille feux, mais plus encore, des magnats et industriels américains immensément riches, pour qui le diamant fait partie des possessions indispensables, au même titre que la maison de campagne, la voiture ou la galerie de portraits des ancêtres.
Je ne sais pas s'ils parlent d'une voiture particuliere (dans le sens d'avoir sa propre voiture à moteur ) ou s'il s'agit d'une voiture à cheval...
Merci pour vos lumieres...
Explanation: Il y a trop de types de voitures hippomobiles pour en choisir un, la calèche, voiture ouverte très spécifique. Les gens aisés utilisaient aussi des landaus, des cabriolets, des coches, etc.
Un point intéressant, Mehdi. Toutefois, on parle de "fabulously wealthy" people. Pourquoi se contenter de l'attelage, lorsque la Daimler et la Rolls sont à portée de portefeuille? Il me semble que diamants, automobile, maison de campagne... sont sur un même podium. Dans ce contexte, l'attelage prendrait la médaille de bronze.
Le texte dit : "an essential possession, on a par with a country house, carriage and ancestral portraits." Je ne pense pas qu'il s'agisse là de nouvelles valeurs, nées à l'invention de l'automobile, mais plutôt de valeurs traditionnelles (couvrant les XVIIe, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles) : on est riche et respectable quand on a une maison de campagne, un attelage et une galerie de portraits d'ancêtres (très importante pour se distinguer des nouveaux riches). Les attelages étaient souvent loués, surtout en ville (de toute façon, la phrase concerne les citadins, puisqu'on mentionne la "maison de campagne"). En posséder un était un signe de richesse, car cela supposait avoir une écurie et au moins un cocher-palefrenier.
J'ai fait une sorte de raccourci... The passage mentions the 20's too but you're right, we're still at the end of the century here. Je vais plus vite que la musique !
As it says 'Belle Époque', what makes you then talk about the 20s?
I'd have said that at least back then in Edwardian times, a (horse) carriage would still have been a status symbol, even though a (horseless) car(riage) would of course have been the latest aspirational object, at least in some of those countries.
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Answers
7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +3
calèche
Explanation: "Science and technology
The Belle Époque was an era of great scientific and technological advancement in Europe and the world in general. Inventions that either are associated with this era or became generally common in this era include the perfection of lightly sprung, noiseless carriages in a multitude of new fashionable forms, which were superseded towards the end of the era by the automobile, which was for its first decade a luxurious experiment for the well-heeled" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Époque
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +3
