l'amour au courant

Chinese translation: collection of ideas

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	l'amour au courant
Chinese translation:	collection of ideas
Entered by:	clearwater

10:30 Dec 26, 2003

English to Chinese translations [PRO]
Art/Literary

English term or phrase: l'amour au courant

With all the high hopes, expectations and fears men and women bring to the table on a first date, it's a wonder anyone makes it to the second these days. To aid in the progress of l'amour au courant, here are some first date do's and don'ts to follow:
啥意思？初次约会？？

clearwater KudoZ activity Questions: 12458 (5 open) (1 without valid answers) (1079 closed without grading) Answers: 1671 China
Local time: 12:04

collection of ideas

Explanation:
My first idea was to translate the term here as "love in its current state" ( 现在的爱情) as the French "amour" clearly means love and "au courant" is mostly translated as "currently, in the current, up-to-date" (see links below)

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwor...
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=au courant
http://www.trincoll.edu/pub/Mosaic/12.01/Cohn.htm

But browsing the internet, I also found this sentence: "I've found that in Italian we could translate the French au-courant
"Essere all'altezza", that means "to be up to the task", "to be able"." (http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/0104/0063.html) This gives it another meaning: Now we could translate it as "being up to love" (为爱作好准备), though I am not so sure about this translation of l'amour au courant.

Another idea is to translate it as "love on high-voltage" (kind of) as courant also translates as (electrical) current. This is of course a rather free translation, though it would fit in the context. Maybe better than any of the other ideas so far.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Selected response from:

Stefanie Sendelbach
Germany
Local time: 06:04

Grading comment

Thanks a lot!
简译：为了有助于促进你们（当前）的恋爱关系。
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

恋爱须知

Ray Luo

帮你了解爱情现在到底是什么一回事

Denyce Seow

collection of ideas

Stefanie Sendelbach

相遇，相知，相恋 or 闪电恋爱

isahuang

love in progress/process; love as it happens

chica nueva

Answers

25 mins confidence:

恋爱须知

Explanation:
in a French dictionary;
(etre) au courant: to know about
amour: love affair

Ray Luo
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:04
Native speaker of:

Chinese
PRO pts in pair: 1113

2 hrs confidence:

collection of ideas

Stefanie Sendelbach
Germany
Local time: 06:04
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in pair: 44

Grading comment

Thanks a lot!
简译：为了有助于促进你们（当前）的恋爱关系。

3 hrs confidence:

帮你了解爱情现在到底是什么一回事

Explanation:
Okie,l'amour is definitely "LOVE" so what exactly is "au courant"??? (Tingting will be the best person to answer this because she knows French!!)

Definition: au courant - being up to particular standard or level especially in being up to date in knowledge; "kept abreast of the latest developments"; "constant revision keeps the book au courant"; "up on the news"

Therefore, l'amour au courant = current knowledge of love
This makes sense especially when it is preceded by the word "progress". "Progress the current knowledge of love" (bad English but the meaning is there...)

这儿有些.... 帮你了解爱情现在到底是什么一回事 / 帮你了解现在的爱情到底是怎么一回事

I am not sticking closely to the original text but the meaning should be the same.

Denyce Seow
Singapore
Local time: 12:04
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 1550

8 hrs confidence:

相遇，相知，相恋 or 闪电恋爱

Explanation:
相遇，相知，相恋或闪电恋爱
au courant bascially means be aware of sth or be familiar with. When people are dating each other, they would like to know each other and then move on to the next stage, like in the progress of l'amour au courant. This is my first interpretation. However, since it talks about first date, it might mean quick love, because courant has another meaning of stream or current in English. That implies sth that happens really quickly. So the second one might better fit into the context.

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Note added at 10 hrs 9 mins (2003-12-26 20:39:31 GMT)
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Clearwater, don\'t look too hard into the French l\'amour au courant. It is bad French. l\'amour en courant makes more sense, which means quick love. I think a better way of translating it is to put it in the whole context and try to see what the author wants to say here.

isahuang
Local time: 00:04
Native speaker of: Chinese
PRO pts in pair: 491

12 hrs confidence:

love in progress/process; love as it happens

Explanation:
'love as it runs'

'courir' = 'to run' in French
see also 'course', 'courier' derived from 'currere' to run in Latin

Even if the English native speaker wasn't sure what it meant, some could guess. If not, it wouldn't affect understanding very much.

The writer has used it for effect - to give a sense of style, specialist knowledge, and 'French' sophistication. Similar to the purpose of French terminology relating to cuisine and menus.

I am not even sure if it makes sense in French...(you could try the French-Chinese pair...)

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Note added at 12 hrs 11 mins (2003-12-26 22:41:31 GMT)
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正在发展总的爱情

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Note added at 12 hrs 12 mins (2003-12-26 22:42:42 GMT)
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别字:
正在发展的爱情

chica nueva
Local time: 16:04
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in pair: 2161

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