French to English Translator with a Global Perspective and Literary Imagination

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French to English

Atelier de Mots
Translation Beyond Words

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Culture+Communication=Translation

Freelancer

Translation, Editing/proofreading, Post-editing, Project management

Specializes in:
Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting	Poetry & Literature
International Org/Dev/Coop	Tourism & Travel

French to English - Rates: 0.10 - 0.12 USD per word / 35 - 40 USD per hour

PRO-level points: 10, Questions answered: 30

4 projects entered

Sample translations submitted: 3

French to English: Book Chapter Excerpt from
Source text - French L’Hôpital Schweitzer aujourd’hui et demain Roland Wolf, President of FISL L’Hôpital Schweitzer et son site au bord de l’Ogooué fascinent les visiteurs – aujourd’hui comme dans le passé. Notamment ceux qui ont la chance d’habiter dans l’ambiance unique de l’ancien hôpital, qu’ils soient logés dans le bâtiment occupé autrefois par les collaborateurs européens ou dans celui, plus simple, qui était destiné aux malades opérés. Ce sont bien sûr les voyageurs âgés, ceux qui ont connu l’œuvre et la pensée de Schweitzer de son vivant et qui rêvaient depuis des années, voire des décennies d’une visite à Lambaréné, qui rendent le plus grand hommage à Schweitzer et qui ressentent la plus grande admiration pour son héritage presque centenaire. Hélas, leur génération qui a grandi pendant et après la Seconde Guerre mondiale et qui à travers ces années noires sans guide spirituel ou humain avait les yeux rivés sur le médecin de la forêt vierge, ce « génie de l’humanité » comme l’appelait Winston Churchill, elle ne sera plus là dans quelques années pour en témoigner. Visiteur régulier depuis d’une douzaine d’années, je demeure moi aussi sous le charme du lieu. Mais le regard du responsable me fait voir en plus des choses qui restent cachées au visiteur occasionnel, les problèmes liés à cette entreprise aussi fragile que fascinante. Les problèmes financiers d’abord qui par moments paraissent insurmontables, parce qu’il est de plus en plus difficile de trouver de l’argent pour une œuvre qui en général ne fait pas parler d’elle dans les médias. Et ce ne sont pas les rares grands donateurs qui garantissent l’existence de l’Hôpital, car eux ont plutôt tendance à donner pour des constructions qu’à le soutenir dans sa tâche primaire qui est d’offrir des soins médicaux de qualité et abordables à une population nécessiteuse.	Translation - English HOSPITAL ALBERT SCHWEITZER: TODAY AND TOMORROW Roland Wolf, President of the International Foundation for the Lambarene Hopital (FISL) The Schweitzer Hospital and its site along the banks of the Ogooué River fascinate visitors today, as in the past. This can be observed by those who, like me, regularly accompany groups of interested visitors to Lambarene. These visitors can live in the ambience of the former hospital that was built in 1927, whether they are lodged in the building once occupied by Schweitzer’s “collaborators” or in the more simple structure destined for post-operative patients. They are most certainly older visitors, those who have known the work and the thought of Schweitzer when he was alive and have dreamed for years, even for decades, of a visit to Lambarene. For them, this is the greatest tribute to Schweitzer from those who feel the deepest admiration for his legacy that is now almost a century long. It is their generation that came of age after World War II and that, through those dark times without spiritual or human leadership, fixed its eyes on the doctor in the primeval forest, this “genius of humanity” as Winston Churchill said. Alas, it is this generation that, in a few years, will no longer be there to bear witness. As a regular visitor for a dozen years, I too am under the spell of this place. But my current vantage point of one who is responsible for it allows me to see things that remain hidden to occasional visitors: problems linked to this enterprise that is as fragile as it is fascinating. To begin with, the financial problems appear, at times, to be insurmountable because it is more and more difficult to find money for an undertaking that, in general, is not discussed in the media. Furthermore, it is not the rare “big donor” who guarantees the existence of the hospital, for those donors often have the tendency to give money for constructions of buildings rather than for the support of the institution’s primary task: to offer quality medical care and make it accessible to a population in need.
French to English: A Passage from the Journal (Vol I) of Swiss novelist C. F. Ramuz General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - French 8 heures du soir. Le soleil va se coucher. La plaine, couvert d’un légère buée bleuâtre, s’étend moutannante jusqu’au pied du Jura, en un vaste demi-cercle. Voici le vert clair des prés fraîchement fauchés[,] le vert sombre des sapins, le vert intermédiaire des hêtres et des chênes[ :] toute une gamme de verts, une orgie de couleur verte. … Le lac repose ; il est violet avec des taches roses. Sur l’autre rive le bleu, que le soir prodigue, l’emporte. Les montagnes de Savoie[,] géantes, sont uniformément vêtues d’une tunique d’ardoise sans pli, et leur profil capricieux se découpe en silhouette sur un ciel presque vert. Merveilleux spectacle. Je voudrais avoir l’âme de Byron pour le dépeindre dignement en vers sonores et beaux et sereins et calmes comme lui. (Journal, Vol. I, June 4, 1897, p. 65)	Translation - English 8 o’clock in the evening. The sun is going down. The plain, covered with a light blue mist, spreads out softly toward the foothills of the Jura in a vast half-circle. Here is the clear green of fresh-cut meadows, the dark green of firs, the intermediate green of beeches and oaks: the entire gamut of green, an orgy of the color green…. The lake is at rest; it is violet with patches of pink. On the other side the blue lavished by evening carries it along. The mountains of the Savoy, those giants, are uniformly dressed in unbending slate, and their capricious profile cuts a silhouette against the sky that is almost green. A marvelous spectacle. I would like to have the soul of Byron in order to describe it with justice in sonorous and beautiful and serene and calm verse, just like his.
French to English: A Wedding Prayer
Source text - French Prière de Noces de Michel Weyer Après avoir imploré la bénédiction divine sur ces nouveau époux, et prié pour eux, je vous invite maintenant à un moment d’intercession pour tous les couples que nous formons ici, mais aussi pour ceux et celles d’entre nous qui cheminent seuls. Prions Dieu ! Seigneur, la cérémonie que nous venons de vivre nous rappelle évidemment ce qu’a été notre propre chemin jusqu’à présent ; elle nous place aussi face à ce à quoi ressemble notre cheminement en ce moment. Toi au regard duquel rien n’est caché, tu connais tous nos itinéraires et nos situations actuelles dans leur diversité et disparité. Tu sais ce qu’a été hier et ce qu’est aujourd’hui notre parcours à tous. Tu connais notre vie de couples, de célibataires, veufs ou de veuves, de divorcés peut-être. Tu connais aussi les profonds besoins de chacun de nos cœurs, parfois sa nostalgie : son besoin d’amour, de tendresse, de protection et d’appui – son besoin de relations solides et fiables, son besoin d’un partenariat enrichissant et bienfaisant. Nous te disons merci pour tous ceux chez qui ce besoin est satisfait. Oui, merci pour les hommes et les femmes qui, d’une manière ou d’une autre, sont devenus nos partenaires, pour tous ceux qui ont croisé notre chemin et nous sont devenus des êtres chers, fidèles époux ou épouses, compagnes ou compagnons loyaux, amis très chers, sur lesquels nous pouvons compter quotidiennement, et en qui nous pouvons trouver l’amour, la tendresse, la bienveillance, la compréhension et l’aide sans lesquels la vie n’est pas facile. Rends-leur au centuple ce bonheur qu’ils nous donnent et le bien qu’ils nous font – mais aide-nous aussi à être pour eux la même source de force et de bonheur que celle qu’ils représentent pour nous. Nous associons à cette prière également nos frères, nos sœurs, nos enfants et tous nos parents … Mais tu sais aussi, Seigneur, que pour beaucoup, un tel jour, une telle cérémonie de mariage n’est pas forcément l’occasion d’une telle reconnaissance joyeuse. Nous pensons à tous ceux qui sont dans la tristesse parce que dans une situation de relation brisée. Nous pensons à ceux d’entre nous qui doivent cheminer seuls parce que la mort leur a enlevé l’accompagnateur qui avait si longtemps été à leur côté. Mais nous pensons aussi à ceux chez qui ce n’est pas la mort qui est venue mettre fin à la relation profonde, solide et bienfaisante qui constitue un fondement si important dans notre vie. Tu connais toutes ces autres choses qui ne viennent que trop facilement perturber, fêler, endommager et parfois même casser et détruire complètement nos plus belles relations humaines. Nous te prions pour ceux et celles qui souffrent de cela, pour ces hommes et ces femmes qui contemplent avec tristesse ou amertume les débris de ce qui avait été un jour un beau mariage ou une belle amitié. Là où ils sont tentés, là où nous pourrions nous-mêmes être tentés de nous replier sur notre amertume, ouvre-nous à la tendresse qui est en toi. Donne-nous de ne jamais désespérer de ton amour qui peut nous libérer de nos crispations, de notre peur de manquer d’amour. Ouvre-nous à la foi en la vie, à la foi dans les possibilités sans cesse renouvelées de l’amour, à cette générosité qui sait pardonner là où le pardon est nécessaire. Nous nous réjouissons avec ceux et celles qui, après un temps d’éclatement et de remise en question, un temps de deuil ou de crise passagère reprennent pied et retrouvent le désir du lendemain. Accorde-leur de découvrir que tu es toujours ce Dieu qui, jadis, a dit à son peuple : « choisis la vie ! ». Nous te prions pour tous les jeunes parmi nous, afin qu’ils ne désespèrent jamais de la vie, et qu’il ne se découragent surtout pas dans la construction, parfois difficile, du partenariat solide et stable auquel ils aspirent. Nous te prions pour nous tous, afin que, libérés de nos égoïsmes, nous sachions toujours, dans les bons et dans les mauvais jours, être des amis pour ceux que tu fais croiser notre chemin. Amen	Translation - English A WEDDING PRAYER by Michel Weyer Pastor in the European Methodist Church Professor of Theology, University of Strasbourg After having entreated God’s blessing on these newlyweds and prayed together for them, I now invite you to join me in a moment of intercession for all those here who live together as couples, and also for those among us who make their way alone. Let us pray. Dear God, the ceremony that we have just witnessed obviously reminds us of the path each of us has taken up to now. It also causes us to confront the shape of our way in the world at this time in our lives. You, Lord, from whom nothing is hidden, you know all our journeys and our current situations in their diversity and disparity. You know the distance each of us traveled yesterday and where we are going today. You know our lives as couples, as singles, as widows and widowers. You also know the profound needs of each of our hearts, and sometimes the nostalgia of our hearts: the need for love, for tenderness, for protection, and support—the heart’s need for solid and effective relations, its need for enriching and beneficial partnership. We thank you, Lord, for all those for whom this need has been satisfied. Yes, thank you for the men and women who, in one way or another, have become our partners and for all those who have crossed our paths and become precious to us: faithful husbands and wives, loyal companions, dear friends. These are people on whom we can count in day-to-day life and in whom we are able to find love, tenderness, kindness, understanding, and help… without which life is not so easy. Render unto them one hundred times the happiness they give to us and the good that they do, but help us also to be for them the same source of strength and happiness that they represent for us. We bring into this prayer, as well, our brothers, sisters, children, and all our relatives. But you also know, Lord, that for many people a day such as this—a marriage ceremony—is not necessarily an occasion for joyful gratitude. We think of all these who are living in sadness as the result of a broken relationship. We also think of those among us who must continue on alone because death has taken the one who was at their side for so long. And we think, too, of those for whom it is not death that came to put an end to a deep, solid, and enriching relationship that once served as the all-important foundation of life. You know about all those things that can too easily disturb, threaten, damage, and sometimes even break and completely destroy our most beautiful human relationships. We pray for those who suffer from that experience, for the men and women who now, with sadness and bitterness, contemplate the debris of what was once a good marriage or friendship. There—in that place where they are drawn to those thoughts, to a place where we ourselves might be tempted to embrace our own bitterness—open our hearts to the tenderness that resides in you. Give us the strength to never give up on your love that holds the power to liberate us from our tensions, from our fear of the loss of love. Open our hearts to faith in life, to faith in the endlessly renewable possibilities of this generosity that knows how to forgive and when forgiveness is necessary. We rejoice with all those who, after a time of estrangement and periods of calling everything into question… after a time of mourning or temporary crisis… find their footing again and resume their desire to greet God tomorrow. Grant them the discovery that you are always the God who, in ages past, spoke to His people saying, “Choose life!” We pray for all the young people among us, that they may never lose faith in life, and that they not become discouraged, especially in the sometimes difficult construction of the solid and stable partnerships to which they aspire. We pray for all those present in the hope that, liberated from egotism, we may always—in good times and bad—know how to be friends to those whose paths have been guided by you to intersect with our own. Amen.

Years of translation experience: 15. Registered at ProZ.com: May 2009.

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About me

Patti Marxsen is a widely published writer who has become increasingly involved with the art of translation. Her writing career began over 20 years ago as an art critic for The Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky) and The Camden Herald (Maine). Concurrently, translation quickly became an aspect of her research work for her M.A. in Art History University of Kentucky, 1985. More recently, she has worked on a wide range of projects as a communications consultant, The Write Woman, and managed communications for several educational and cultural organizations in New England. Most recently, during her nearly seven years with the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century in Cambridge, Massachusetts (now the Ikeda Center), she edited a newsletter, a website, and conference reports; interviewed numerous scholars and global activists; and directed the development of multi-author books on global ethics and education, including "Educating Citizens for Global Awareness" (2005) and "Ethical Visions of Education: Philosophies in Practice" (2007), both published by Teachers College Press.

A former French teacher whose travels have taken her to French-speaking countries on three continents, not to mention Haiti and Tahiti, Marxsen’s writing often focuses on the art, literature, and culture of the Francophone world. Her articles, essays, interviews, commentaries, and reviews have appeared in over 40 publications, including The Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and The New England Antiques Journal, as well as in scholarly/literary journals such as the Caribbean Writer, Fourth Genre, the Journal of Haitian Studies, Absinthe, Prairie Schooner, and the Women's Review of Books. She has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize for her travel writing and received a Special Mention in the 2009 Pushcart Prize Competition for "Alone in Amsterdam" (Fourth Genre, 2007). Her collection of travel essays entitled "Island Journeys: Exploring the Legacy of France" was published in 2008 by Alondra Press (Houston) and subsequently shortlisted for the Non-fiction Book Award of the Writers' League of Texas.

In 2010, Marxsen's short story collection entitled "Tales from the Heart of Haiti" was published by Educa Vision and her first book-length translation (from the French) also appeared: "Albert Schweitzer's Lambarene: A Legacy of Humanity for Our World Today" by Jo and Walter Munz, published by Penobscot Press, an imprint of Picton Press.

Marxsen has lived in Switzerland since 2007, where she is currently working on the first English tranlsation of translating C.F. Ramuz's prose poem entitled "Chant de notre Rhone." Her in-depth book reviews of translated texts include Blake Robinson's first-ever English translation of C.F. Ramuz's "The Young Man from Savoy" (Absinthe: New American Writing, Fall 2009) and the first English translation of Marie Vieux-Chauvet's repressed 1968 novel, "Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triology" (Women's Review of Books, March/April 2010).

Keywords: art, literature, global, ethics, religion, history, biography, education, Haiti, Gabon

Profile last updated
Dec 27, 2010

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