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Don't feed the bad wolf.

French translation: Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	Don't feed the bad wolf.
French translation:	Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

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19:52 Jul 11, 2011

The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2011-07-15 12:54:18 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)

English to French translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature

English term or phrase: Don't feed the bad wolf.

(Or, Do not feed the bad wolf.)

It's from a story that my father told me as a child. I'm making a memory book for his memorial service and I want this on the cover. Please help? The memorial service is this Friday, July 15.

Here is the story:
An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil—he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.” They thought about it for a minute, and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win, Grandfather?” The Elder simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Amynda

Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

Explanation:
Le verbe "nourrir" permet, à mon avis, de rendre la phrase plus simple que "donner à manger".
On le trouve employé sur ce site pour une histoire semblable :
http://lesmiracles.com/anecdotes spirituelles/nourrir_le_lou...
"Alimenter" peut aussi aller.

I hope this will help.

Selected response from:

Pierre-Olivier Vilain
France
Local time: 07:34

Grading comment

Thank you so very much! This is exactly what I was looking for! Merci!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

Pierre-Olivier Vilain

4 +1

Ne nourrissez pas le méchant loup

Tony M

Nourrir le bon "loup".

Marion Feildel

Answers

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

don't feed the bad wolf.

Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

Pierre-Olivier Vilain
France
Local time: 07:34
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in category: 8

Grading comment

Thank you so very much! This is exactly what I was looking for! Merci!

13 hrs confidence:

don't feed the bad wolf. Nourrir le bon "loup".

Explanation:
"Nourrir le bon "loup" :-)
Un soir, un vieil Amérindien parlait à son petit-fils du combat qui se livre à l'intérieur de chacun de nous. Il l'expliquait comme suit: 'Il y a deux loups' en chacun de nous.

Le loup du Mal. C'est la colère, l'envie, la jalousie, la tristesse, le regret, l'avidité, l'arrogance, l'apitoiement, la culpabilité, le ressentiment, l'infériorité, le mensonge, l'orgueil, la supériorité et l'ego..

Le loup du Bien. C'est la joie, la paix, l'amour, l'espérance, la sérénité, l'humilité, la bonté, la bienveillance, l'empathie, la générosité, la vérité la compassion .

Après y avoir réfléchi pendant un instant, le petit-fils demande:
'Grand-papa, quel loup gagne?'

Le Grand-papa lui répond simplement:
'Celui que tu nourris.'"

Reference: http://guide.over-blog.com/article-28884434.html

Marion Feildel
Turkey
Local time: 08:34
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in category: 11

Notes to answerer

Asker: While I appreciate the suggestion to adopt a more positive title for the memory book, I would like to state that your idea that the title isn't positive is a bit biased and out of context. My father adopted that story as his motto and lived his life not feeding the bad wolf. That is why the memory book will have that title. He literally fought the evil in this world. I do appreciate the suggestion but I would like the translation to reflect the exact quote "Don't feed the bad wolf."

9 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

don't feed the bad wolf Ne nourrissez pas le méchant loup

Explanation:
I think 'nourrir' is the perfect verb here, as of course this is 'nourish' in a purely figurative sense.

And to re-quote P-O's ref. above:

http://lesmiracles.com/anecdotes spirituelles/nourrir_le_lou...

...this earlier translation in fact also uses the term 'méchant', as I had suggested earlier.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 heures (2011-07-12 05:35:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or of course, as Sporran has said in discussion, « le loup méchant »

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 heures (2011-07-12 17:58:04 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

'bad' can only have the meaning 'evil' in the source text here (as indeed emphasized by Asker when talking about her late father).

It's important to bear in mind that in EN, the word 'bad' is unambiguous, unlike 'mauvais' in FR — it cannot under normall circumstances mean 'wrong'.

Tony M
France
Local time: 07:34
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 34

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

marie-christine périé: I would definetely go for "méchant"!

1 hr

-> Merci, M-C !

neutral

Marion Feildel: en français, ça fait immédiatement penser au grand méchant loup du Petit Chaperon rouge. Pour un "memorial service" ce n'est peut-être pas approprié. / Alright then... :-)

5 hrs

-> In EN too, Marion.. but apparently Asker isn't worried about that...

agree

sporran

8 hrs

-> Thanks, Sporran!

disagree

Najib Aloui: Je vous assure que si j'avais eu à traduire ce petit conte qui appartient à une tradition totalement différente de celle de l'Europe, j'aurais catégoriquement rejeté le "méchant loup", car en Europe le loup est "un" , pas deux , irrémédiablement méchant.

10 hrs

-> Merci, Najib ! Je ne suis pas sûr que ça justifie tout de même un 'Désaccord', mais bon...

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Don't feed the bad wolf.

French translation: Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

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Don't feed the bad wolf.

French translation: Ne nourrissez pas le mauvais loup.

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