French translation: avait fini de se jouer de Tess
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English to French translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
English term or phrase:had ended his sport with Tess
Hello,
I'm looking for the translation of the English expression 'had ended his sport with.."
Context is quote from Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles: “Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals (in Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess.
I thought this would be an easy search online but I've been unable to locate it and do not have access to a good translation of the novel. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Explanation: Tess comme jouet du destin / des dieux
"This passage is the last paragraph of Chapter LIX at the close of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Its tired and unimpassioned tone suggests the narrator’s weariness with the ways of the world, as if quite familiar with the fact that life always unfolds in this way. Nothing great is achieved by this finale: the two figures of Liza-Lu and Angel “went on” at the end, just as life itself will go on. Ignorance rules, rather than understanding: the d’Urberville ancestors who cause the tragedy are not even moved from their slumber, blithely unaffected by the agony and death of one of their own line. Tess’s tale has not been a climactic unfolding, but a rather humdrum affair that perhaps happens all the time.
In this sense, there is great irony in Hardy’s reference to the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, since we feel tragedy should be more impassioned, like the Prometheus Bound referred to here. Prometheus dared to steal fire from the gods for the benefit of men, thus improving human life, but he was punished by eternal agony sent by the president of the gods. Aeschylus’s view of that divine justice was ironic—just as Hardy’s justice is placed in ironic quotation marks—since it seemed deeply unjust to punish Prometheus so severely. Our judgment of Prometheus’s crime matters immensely. Yet Tess’s suffering, by contrast, seems simply a game or “sport,” as if nothing important is at stake. It is hard to know whether Tess has brought any benefits to anyone, though Angel’s life has been changed and Liza-Lu may grow up to be like her sister. In any case, Hardy hints that Tess’s life may have a mythical and tragic importance like that of Prometheus, but it is up to us to judge how ironic this justice is, or what her life’s importance might be." http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tess/quotes.html#explanation5
What I meant was the "caprices" (sport) of the President of the Immortals. So you'd have to say "Tess était enfin libérée des caprices du Président ..."
I don't think it has anything to do with Tess' "caprices". I don't think she had any whims by the way.
Central to Hardy's work is the idea of fate, expressed here in this allusion to Aeschylus' idea of being "the plaything of the Gods"
cf :
" When Thomas Hardy drew his first chancy breaths inside a Dorset cottage in ... cosmically long view Hardy took of his fictional characters, fate's playthings set ... and thus, perhaps, judged all the more laudable in his heroine. ..." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/books/review/Mallon.t.html
This is just a suggestion to go on. I had the idea of shifting it round to Tess's point of view.
Well, maybe 'caprice' is appropriate whichever way you choose.
Tess était enfin libérée de ses caprices
Aeschylus’s view of that divine justice was ironic—just as Hardy’s justice is placed in ironic quotation marks—since it seemed deeply unjust to punish Prometheus so severely. Our judgment of Prometheus’s crime matters immensely. Yet Tess’s suffering, by contrast, seems simply a game or “sport,” as if nothing important is at stake.
I guess I would need to read the whole chapter to understand !
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
8 hrs confidence:
had ended his sport with tess
a fini son évasion avec Tess
Explanation: ou bien ... jeu, amusement, passe-temps, divertissement, distraction... [in my mind these are all kinds of suggestions for a relationship that's less than serious]
Timothy Rake Local time: 03:29 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 8
Explanation: Tess comme jouet du destin / des dieux
"This passage is the last paragraph of Chapter LIX at the close of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Its tired and unimpassioned tone suggests the narrator’s weariness with the ways of the world, as if quite familiar with the fact that life always unfolds in this way. Nothing great is achieved by this finale: the two figures of Liza-Lu and Angel “went on” at the end, just as life itself will go on. Ignorance rules, rather than understanding: the d’Urberville ancestors who cause the tragedy are not even moved from their slumber, blithely unaffected by the agony and death of one of their own line. Tess’s tale has not been a climactic unfolding, but a rather humdrum affair that perhaps happens all the time.
In this sense, there is great irony in Hardy’s reference to the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, since we feel tragedy should be more impassioned, like the Prometheus Bound referred to here. Prometheus dared to steal fire from the gods for the benefit of men, thus improving human life, but he was punished by eternal agony sent by the president of the gods. Aeschylus’s view of that divine justice was ironic—just as Hardy’s justice is placed in ironic quotation marks—since it seemed deeply unjust to punish Prometheus so severely. Our judgment of Prometheus’s crime matters immensely. Yet Tess’s suffering, by contrast, seems simply a game or “sport,” as if nothing important is at stake. It is hard to know whether Tess has brought any benefits to anyone, though Angel’s life has been changed and Liza-Lu may grow up to be like her sister. In any case, Hardy hints that Tess’s life may have a mythical and tragic importance like that of Prometheus, but it is up to us to judge how ironic this justice is, or what her life’s importance might be." http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tess/quotes.html#explanation5
FX Fraipont Belgium Local time: 12:29 Works in field Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 45
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
