#les mis language

The verb "permettre" does literally mean "to permit/allow" but "Do you permit it?" has always felt way too formal to me, given the original French. First of all, the original phrase doesn't specify an "it" or a "me" (Le permets-tu? / Me permets-tu?). It's very short, very casual, very ambiguous.

Some alternative translations might be: "May I?" "Do you mind?" "If you'll allow?" "Is it alright with you?"

I think if I were to translate the chapter now I might go with "May I?" which keeps the casual, short, and ambiguous nature.

Gavroche says: “And make haste, Monsieur What’s-your-name, for Mamselle Cosette is waiting.”

This line in French is: “Et dépêchez-vous, monsieur Chose, puisque mamselle Chosette attend.”

"Chose" means "thing" so Gavroche is kind of calling Jean Valjean "monsieur thingamajig" since he doesn't know Valjean's name. The funny part is that this can be made into a pun when he refers to Cosette as "Chosette" instead, which is just the word "chose" with a feminine "ette" tacked on, making them Monsieur Chose and Mamselle Chosette.

I've been having fun poking around in the "Rédaction Initiale" (the earliest version) of Les Mis and want to collect the different initial character names I've run across in one place!

Jean Valjean <- Jean Tréjean

madame Magloire <- madame Marthe

mademoiselle Baptistine <- mademoiselle Sylvanie

Fantine <- Marguerite Louet

Cosette <- Anna Louet*

Marius Pontmercy <- Thomas Pontmercy

Gillenormand <- Charpentier

Gavroche <- Chavroche

Eponine <- Palmyre

Azelma <- Malvina

Grantaire <- Grangé

* This name is the reason Cosette is called Alouette! “La mère s’appelait Marguerite Louet, son enfant s’appelait Anna Louet. D’Anna Louet on avait fait Alouette. C’était le nom qu’on lui donnait dans tout Montfermeil.” Translation: The mother was called Marguerite Louet, her child was called Anna Louet. From Anna Louet they had made Alouette. It was the name she was given in all of Montfermeil.

Hapgood's translation of "reins" as "loins" has continued to be funny for modern readers throughout the entire book.

Hey all, I've put together an editable spreadsheet that I'm hoping people will add to this year as we read along with @lesmisletters!

The idea is to track any notable Les Mis version comparisons or discrepancies. So far I've included spaces for 3 different web-accessible French editions I know of, as well as all the major English translations. Please feel free to add more columns for other versions or translations in other languages!

I'm hoping that at the end we'll have a handy spreadsheet that can be used as a resource for those looking to compare areas of the text across versions/translations including notable lines, puns, errors, or discrepancies.

Here's the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19h23ugcNa4Ux1A5wmfo42wdb4ANvfMtB5U7NMzPmsok/edit?usp=sharing

“D’ailleurs, à quatre-vingt-dix ans...” It's just ninety. 90.

I love how some of Gavroche's dialogue is written out phonetically so we can hear what he sounds like. Examples include:

“Keksekça?” = Qu’est-ce que c’est que cela? An English approximation might be: "Whassat?" = What is that?

“Kekçaa?” = Qu’est-ce que cela a? "Whaddaboutit?" = What about it? / What does it matter?

“Gniena plein un magasin.” = Il y en a plein un magasin. " 'Sa shop full of 'em" = There's a shop full of them

“Gnia qu’à monter par-dessus un mur,” = Il n’y a qu'à monter par-dessus un mur "Y'only gotta climb over a wall" = You only have to climb over a wall

“Me v'là, dit-il.” = Me voilà, dit-il. I couldn't really think of an English approximation for shortening this but Hapgood's translation is "I'm with you" (basically, "I'm here / I'm ready").

I have a problem with Hapgood's translation of this line in the description of Mademoiselle Baptistine: “...large eyes forever drooping;—a mere pretext for a soul’s remaining on the earth.” In French: “...de grands yeux toujours baissés ; un prétexte pour qu’une âme reste sur la terre.”

The word "drooping" here doesn't seem quite right. I'm following along this year with the FMA translation and it does a much better job with: "...large eyes, always downcast, a pretext for a soul to remain on earth."