I've written about André Chouraqui's translation of the Bible into French several times before. The passage from his translation that is particularly well-known is the Beatitudes where the the word "blessed" is rendered "En Marche"
Yesterday evening I read Chouraqui's translation of the Magnificat for the first time - partly to see how "blessed" was rendered in this passage - and in verse 48 he has Mary say "from this time on all generations will call me: En marche!" It's of course not the most elegant French - but it is thought provoking and it does challenge the rather more passive way we tend to interpret "blessed". Translating makarios - blessed - in the beatitudes and here in the Magnificat as "en marche!" - gives it the meaning of get up, get going, let's go. If someone is "en marche" they would be setting out on a path, walking, "marcher" is the French for to walk; if something is en marche, it is switched on, working, going.
Thinking about this I realised that the best way of trying to explain the meaning to a British audience would be with the catchphrase of David Tennant's Dr Who "allons y!" - let's get to it, let's go there, let's go!
Dr B has for several years now been wanting me to preach a series of sermon on Dr Who related themes - I have to keep reminding him that in France no one would understand anything about it. Anyway I hope he appreciates this little attempt at a Dr Who thought for the day rather than sermon.
Saturday, 6 March 2010
The link between Dr Who's "allons y!" and André Chouraqui's translation of the Magnificat
Publié par Jane à l'adresse 17:59
Libellés : Bible, translation
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 Comments:
Nice association/translation, Jane. Does that mean we can look forward to more Dr. Who thoughts for the day?
Stephen would like that but I think my knowledge of Dr Who is not quite up to his standards - he should do them himself I feel!
Oddly enough, when I went to the pharmacy yesterday the pharmacist said "allons y" as he put the health insurance card (Carte Vitale) into the card reader
Ahh you see I can sense another thought for the day coming on a link between soteriology and the "card of life" - the link to Dr Who may be more complex - carte vitale doesn't even with my poor speeling seem to be an anagram of bad wolf ... hmmm
I love this quote Jane. Thanks
Post a Comment