ENGLISH AS SHE IS WRITTEN

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18189, 23 June 1927, Page 3

ENGLISH AS SHE IS WRITTEN

AMUSING ERRORS IN PARIS SALON CATALOGUE LONDON". May 2. Amusing and amazing examples of English a la Francaise are to lie found in the authorised English edition of the illustrated catalogue of the Paris “Salon.” The titles of some of the pictures have apparently defeated the ingenuity of the unknown scholar responsible for the translations. Underneath the French titles of most of the paintings, however, is given the English version, and these curious translations arc identical with those in the official French catalogue. “Femmes nues dans un pare” is translated “Uncovered women in the park.” Any schoolgirl would know the meaning of “en plein air,” but a portrait of an artist in the open air becomes in English “in full air.” Women engaged in needlework “stetch” and do not “sew,” and how delicious is “in the around” for “environs.” A table set for 5 o'clock tea is described as “For five clocks.” And what must the charming Mine, de R. think of the English version of the title of the portrait of herself and her children when she reads, “Mistress de R. of her children”? The .picture of two women looking after a cart drawn by oxen is called “Quand l'homme n’est plus la.” It becomes in the catalogue for English people, “When the men is not hire.” Every study of a bather is translated as “bath-keeper.” And to render in English “Jeunes Veaux” was too much for the translator; he could do no better than “Young veals.” Other curiosities are : ‘'Ships groat with subsists” for “le “ Uncovered reading woman ” for “femme nue lisant,” “ The dress with rubber file ” for “ la “Bastide in the Olivers” for “ Bastide dans les oliviers.” and “Return of the profuse-child ” for “ retour de l’enfant prodigue.” The catalogue is published at 5s by John Lane, who have inserted a slip in which they say that they take “no responsibility for the translations of the titles of the pictures, which are identical with those in the official French catalogue.”