un amour de femme

English translation: she is a darling of a woman

15:41 Aug 25, 2008

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

French term or phrase: un amour de femme

this was the subject line of an email. Does it mean: "love for a woman" or "a love of women" or "the love of a woman"?

Susie

English translation:she is a darling of a woman

Explanation:

do not expect ideal solutions as long as you are witholding context. My suggestion thus can only be guess work.

Selected response from:

Ellen Kraus
Austria
Local time: 08:25

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +7

she is a darling of a woman

Ellen Kraus

4 +1

a woman's love

Jean-Claude Gouin

a lovely woman

Katarina Peters

3 +1

Love from a woman/A woman's love

MatthewLaSon

a woman loved by everyone.

axies

Summary of reference entries provided

Edward LAMB

tralamode

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

4 mins confidence:

a lovely woman

Explanation:
it could either mean the above or:
"a woman's love"

Katarina Peters
Canada
Local time: 02:25
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Hungarian,

English
PRO pts in category: 14

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +7

she is a darling of a woman

Explanation:

do not expect ideal solutions as long as you are witholding context. My suggestion thus can only be guess work.

Ellen Kraus
Austria
Local time: 08:25
Native speaker of:

German

Grading comment

Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

15 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Love from a woman/A woman's love

Explanation:
Hello,

"Un amour de femme", c'est un amour provenant d'une femme

It often has a sexual connotation.

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Note added at 35 mins (2008-08-25 16:16:11 GMT)
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Also, it can a term of endearment: "a darling of a woman", which is probably the case here.

un amour de bébé = a darling little baby
un amour de pantalon = cute pair of pants

MatthewLaSon
Local time: 02:25
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 20

15 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

a woman's love

Explanation:
*

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Note added at 17 mins (2008-08-25 15:58:28 GMT)
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It could also mean "a lovely woman" or "a darling of a woman" ...

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Note added at 4 hrs (2008-08-25 20:10:01 GMT)
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Emma: Un amour de femme ... pour son enfant, un amour de femme ... la façon qu'une femme aime, etc.
Matthew: Do you have other examples/instances which I could use to convey to Emma the "dual" meaning without additional context?

Jean-Claude Gouin
Canada
Local time: 02:25
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in category: 4

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

agree

MatthewLaSon: If it's not being used a term of endearment, it clearly means "womanly love." No, the French is not literally saying "l'amour d'une femme", but "l'amour de femme", which means "womanly love". That clearly implies love from a woman.

23 mins

-> Merci Matthew pour ton analyse ...

neutral

Emma Paulay: "A woman's love" would be "l'amour d'une femme".//I did think about it before I commented. To me, it can only mean 'a darling of a woman'.

1 hr

-> I agree with you, Emma; "a woman's love" is "l'amour d'une femme" ... BUT "un amour de femme" could also mean "a woman's love" OR "a darling of a woman" ... Think about it ...

disagree

Edward LAMB: Emma's is the only appropriate response. You might even say 'adorable' as : "Un amour de petite chèvre...", Alphonse Daudet, La Petite Chèvre de Monsieur Seguin. Which means that Blanquette was an 'adorable' little goat...but not that she loved M. Seguin!

14 hrs

-> You agree with Emma's neutrality with a "disagree"? Welcome to ProZ.com ...

agree

tralamode

1 day 1 hr

-> Thanks a lot, Matthew, for your vote of confidence ...

10 hrs confidence:

a woman loved by everyone.

Explanation:
This just adds to the others.

axies
Australia
Local time: 15:55
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English,

Portuguese

Reference comments

1 day 16 mins

Reference

Reference information:
"Ah ! Gringoire, qu'elle était,jolie la petite chèvre de M. Séguin ! qu'elle était,jolie avec ses yeux doux, sa barbiche de sous-officier, ses sabots noirs et luisants, ses cornes zébrées et ses longs poils blancs qui lui faisaient une houppelande ! C'était presque aussi charmant que le cabri d'Esméralda, tu te rappelles, Gringoire ? - et puis, docile, caressante, se laissant traire sans bouger, sans mettre son pied dans l'écuelle. Un amour de petite chèvre... "

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Note added at 1 day6 hrs (2008-08-26 22:06:41 GMT)
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Little does it matter, linguistically speaking, that the object, here, be a female... goat. Whatever the object may be,
in proper modern French usage, "un amour de..." (immediately followed by a noun, no matter the gender, means something 'charming', shall we say... Now, there might be some semantic controversy concerning regional vernacular (admittedly Alphonse Daudet was influenced by the "patois Provençal", although not a native of the South of France...; as for Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, despite his renoun as a literary critic...). He, obviously used those words, not as a popular expression, but, in order to create the juxtaopposition : "d'un amour de femme, mais d'une amitié d'homme." Nota bene : the preposition "de", in this case " d' ", alters the meaning as defined by the Dictionnaire Larousse. It is not found in our example, thus, not pertinent...
One could, of course, go on and on in a debate which quickly becomes vain...

Example sentence(s):

"Un amour de petite chèvre... "
In this contexte, Blanquette was an 'adorable' little goat...it does not signify that she loved M. Seguin!

Reference: http://www.alalettre.com/daudet-seguin.htm

Edward LAMB
France
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

1 hr

Reference

Reference information:
I would say it depends on the context as it can mean both "a woman's love/womanly love" and "a lovely woman." There was a French movie called "Un amour de femme", and the U.S. title was "A woman's love." But again, depends on the context.

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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2008-08-26 17:53:39 GMT)
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To provide some literary references for two meanings this phrase can clearly have:

Portraits contemporains p.73
By Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
"Cette espèce de crime se renouvelle encore deux autres fois, et dans l'une des deux à propos non plus d'un amour de femme, mais d'une amitié d'homme."
http://books.google.com/books?id=szEJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA73&dq="un...

La Comédie Humaine (Balzac, P. Citron) p. 131
"Eh! bien, tu es un amour de femme, ma Renée"
http://books.google.com/books?id=wbZcAAAAMAAJ&q="un amour de...

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Note added at 1 day20 hrs (2008-08-27 12:39:09 GMT)
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Études de la nature
By Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, (1836)
On Jeanne d'Arc: "Entrainée par un amour de femme et en même temps de héros, elle couvre sa tête du casque dont le panache avait montré à l'armée française découragée le chemin de la victoire;" (p.122)
http://books.google.com/books?id=ow8-AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA122&dq="u...

Mémoires couronnés et autres mémoires ...
Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique
1862
"Mais qu'un homme ait pu, sans encourir le moindre blâme de la part de ses supérieurs, exercer des fonctions sacrées, porter l'habit du prêtre et nourrir dans son cœur un amour de femme, si pur et idéal que fût cet amour, c'est une étrangeté morale qui caractérise une époque. Pétrarque avait trois grandes passions: l'amour de Laure, l'amour de l'étude et l'amour de la patrie italienne." (p. 219)
http://books.google.com/books?id=LN0zAAAAMAAJ&dq="un amour d...

Or, in Alexandre Dumas's translation of Hamlet,

"OPHÉLIE C'est bien court monseigneur
HAMLET Comme un amour de femme"

http://books.google.com/books?id=aoctAAAAMAAJ&dq="un amour d...
Théâtre complet de Alex. Dumas By Alexandre Dumas

Reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386092/

tralamode
United States
Works in field
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)

disagree

Edward LAMB: French language literary reference : http://www.alalettre.com/daudet-seguin.htm. My bet is that the film title in French was a play on the words, a kind of pun which, of course, the U.S. title could not translate... Also see the Dictionnaire Larousse...

22 hrs

-> Ok legolingo, I see your goat reference, but since this is a subject line of an email without any other context, it's important to take into consideration all possible meanings.

agree

Emma Paulay: Hmm.You're beginning to convince me. However, I think this way of saying 'l'amour des femmes/l'amour au féminin/l'amour d'une femme is only used when a play on words is intended. Which doesn't get us any further as we've no idea :-)

1 day 3 hrs

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