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French to English translations [PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
French term or phrase:la joie de vivre en personne
Enfant, c'est une petite fille pétillante et malicieuse, ***la joie de vivre en personne*** ! Elle a beaucoup d'énergie et n'a pas la langue dans sa poche.
How can I best put this, happiness in human form? The embodiment of happiness? Happiness disguised as a little girl? I know I could say joie de vivre but I'd rather avoid it (pet hate).
I know just what you mean about the applicability of 'vivacity' to a child; I have the same qualms, but sort of feel that if it is an adult talking in a detached, objective way (well, sort of!) about a child as seen from an adult perspective, then it's probably OK. I'd prefer it, though, if it were expressed as a quality she possessed, for example: "Despite her many health problems as a child, she always showed a great deal of vivacity" — but there, even as I write this, it does ring rather oddly...
This is a numerology reading, I had "happiness personified" but I think SJ has it best with "vivacity" - although I don't agree with "itself", I think it's the "its" bit that bugs me, since she is a person and not an "it"...
targeting? Without knowing at least something about the context, I find it impossible to make a peer comment. Only the person who can see the (con)text knows which cliché to use in English. It also has to fit in with the rest of the translation.
What do you have so far, what have you already rejected and what is the actual problem this is causing?
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
