@Angela 19:04 Feb 15, 2017
As was mentioned in a previous discussion, translating texts like this by 19th c. French academics can be be a challenging exercise --they are frequently maddeningly vague, imprecise, even contradictory. It's sometimes more like reading/translating poetry than "scientific" prose. (The German stuff is almost always more precise, but sometimes so convoluted in its density of thought as to present its own, nearly insurmountable problems, in both understanding and translation.)
In practice, I read this kind of material for my own use and understanding --which is quite different from having to make an "accurate" translation. In the former, one can "fudge" some of the more difficult parts, and make the guy's text fit what you *think* he means to say (according to your own ability to understand that); which is a far cry from doing a literal translation.
otOh, your author here (whom I have never read) appears to have been a major Egyptologist, a respected scholar, who (we must assume) didn't write nonsense.
My point is that it appears to me that there was an established French tradition in this kind of writing which valued "eloquence" over precision.
So, don't be discouraged. |