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Parachutiste → English translation
Paratrooper
- 1. "a good beating" in US English
- 2. allusion to the decolonisation wars, mostly in Indochina and Algeria. The systematic use of torture against the Algerian FLN was heavily controversial at the time the song was written
- 3. During the Algerian war, conscientious objectors had no specific legal status and were subjected to various military punishments, including disciplinary measures as depicted in this stanza
1. | San Francisco |
2. | Né quelque part |
3. | Ambalaba |
1. | US English |
Ah, let's see :D The translation looks pretty good, there are just a few things that I would change
You were only just eighteen -> A bit too much repitition here. I would more likely say "You were only eighteen years old." Generic, but it sounds better with what comes after it
and told you "give a good what for to anything that moves" -> Not really sure what the French or English means here, but based on this : https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/rentrer-dedans.2572494/ it means something like, "show everything that moves what you're made of."
And then came the honours, decorations, medals -> I would say, "the decorations and medals" because it seems to be expanding on the honors ( my way of spelling it ;) ) and not just listing off three things
you won't fail a single ambush -> don't instead of won't
you still can retrain among your little brothers. -> 'You can still' and I'm not sure that retrain really works here... I would more so say 'keep training' or 'start training again' and then 'with your little brothers' instead of among... just doesn't sound right ;)
There must be career opportunities in the police -> I would use "some career opportunities with the police" here
Haha, I was not aware of that ! I just thought it was a bad translation, but I was mystified because it was your translation. Needless to say, I was a bit confused. Basically, to an American, 'give a what for' makes no sense and just sounds like broken English ;) . "Give a what for" makes no sense to me and I'm not sure any other American would understand it :D
I don't really know, it seemed like the verb tense skipped around a bit there, so it was a bit hard for me to follow. Basically, "won't" seems more like he's never fought, but he's good enough to never lose, whereas "don't" seems more like he hasn't and never will lose a fight. Depends on what you think fits better :)
Retrain, at least in America, is rarely used. I only hear it used for on the job training, for example, "she wasn't good enough at doing [a certain thing at her job], so we had to retrain her" or something like that.
That's a good point "retrain" does rather mean "go and train again to improve" or "train in someting different" so if that's not the intention then "train again" or "train once more" is better. :)
Actually it's similar to the problem I tried to explain elsewhere where revivre was translated as relive. Revivre can mean "live again" "come back to life" but relive can only mean "re-experience". Usually in the sense of a vivid recollection. Oh look, recollection - another one!
Maybe we could just use "go train" as it implies a change
I would say go train myself, go and retrain seems a bit like overkill
Maybe that's just because we don't use train as much as Brits ;)
I feel like the 'something else' is implied in the phrase about the police, but what you think should follow is probably more valuable than that of an American teenager ;)
That makes a lot of sense... I didn't even think of that. It fits in pretty well, too :)
Perhaps "you snipe at me whenever you can" would fit?
:D :D Glad I could be of service
Maybe you could still use "give a good what for to anything that moves" but put single quotes around 'what for' like Gavin suggested, but put a footnote on it to explain it to those like me who have never heard it before ;)
"you'll snipe at me each time you get the chance" I really like that, but I would more so say "you'll snipe at me whenever you get the chance"
Talk about a team effort!