You can find many attempts on the web, here's my mine (if any one out there *ever* googles their way to this page, please let me know!)
A Une Damoysell Malade
Clement Marot |
To a poorly little girl
Botogol |
Ma mignonne,
Je vous donne Le bon jour; Le séjour C'est prison. Guérison Recouvrez, Puis ouvrez Votre porte Et qu'on sorte Vitement, Car Clément Le vous mande. Va, friande De ta bouche, Qui se couche En danger Pour manger Confitures; Si tu dures Trop malade, Couleur fade Tu prendras, Et perdras L'embonpoint. Dieu te doint Santé bonne, Ma mignonne |
Princess mine,
Just a line t'say 'hello'; You're so low Jailed all day. That I say Get well soon! Leave the room Walk outside, - door is wide -. Run, even, Uncle Stephen Tells you so. Out you go Cure your ill have your fill of bread 'n' jam. Or - I am Warning you - If your flu Lingers on You'll be wan Pale and thin Haggard skin. Trust in me God will see You'll be fine, Princess mine. |
Here's a great discussion of Hofstadter and his works
4 comments:
Hi, Botogol--
I, for one, googled my way to your Ma Mignonne page. I have been slogging through "Le ton beau de Marot", a few pages at a time, for the last year or so; I'm about 60% through (not counting the index, which Hofstadter says I should read too).
I was prompted to google Ma Mignonne by the 24 Nov. 2007 entry
(http://idothings.info/im-fat-and-weak-so-you-dont-have-to-be/)
in the I Do Things So You Don't Have To blog, which begins with these lines from Bjork's Eat the Menu:
. It's none of my business
. But you have to eat
. Your appetite is appalling
This reminded me of Ma Mignonne, so rather than go upstairs and fetch Hofstadter to find corresponding lines, I of course googled.
I like your translation! In fact, I like it more than MANY of those in H's book. Much less labored than many of H's own. "Princess mine" is a great stand-in for "ma mignonne". :-)
Just a couple of suggested changes:
1. Shouldn't "scoff" be "scarf"?
2. "of scones and jam" is the only 4-syllable line. Why not just "Scarf your fill:/Scones and jam"?
3. "If your flu/Lingers on" sounds more natural to me--also closer to the original.
All in all, a nice job!
--Charles
Charles S. Harris
webmaster, The Nurture Assumption website
http://xchar.home.att.net/tna/
webmaster, No Two Alike website
http://xchar.home.att.net/n2a/
Hi Charles- thanks for the kind comments!
scoff - that's a Britishism for scarf :-)
Your other suggestions: yes, I like them better. I'll change my text (which will confuse the next visitor....if there ever is a next visitor!)
Five years since your post, you have another visitor. :-) I'm reading the book now and decided to post my own translations and thought it would be interesting to find others who had done the same thing. So yes, I found you by googling. I really like your version. I linked to it on my blog and I called it both faithful and clever. If you'd like to see mine, they're here: http://otherlives.blogspot.com/2011/06/ma-mignonne-ive-been-reading-wonderful.html
Hi Nancy, thanks for that. Alas your blog is closed to visitors :-(
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