ffutures: (Default)
ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2010-10-03 08:57 pm

Quick translation needed

What would "From Venus With Love" be in French? I don't trust any of the translation sites and my French is virtually non-existent.

One of seven films I'm inventing for the Weinbaum game...

Later According to a native French speaker on the [livejournal.com profile] little_details community, Bon Baisers de Vénus is the nearest idiomatic translation that has the ambiguity I want. It's not really important to the plot (it's basically a little something for background detail that may never even be used) so I'll go with it.

[identity profile] gbsteve.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Bons baisers de Russie is the name of the Bond film so Bons baisers de Vénus works for me.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks - so long as Bons isn't French for Bond, of course...

[identity profile] nojay.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I think that translates directly as "Good kisses of Russia" which is probably not what you're after...

[identity profile] smallship1.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"De Vénus Avec Amour."

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay... any other contenders

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
The machine translation seems to be

De la Vénus avec l'Amour.

I think I may change it to "With Love from Venus," which the program claims is

Avec l'amour de la Vénus

Any thoughts, anyone?

[identity profile] nelc.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
That's as far as my schoolboy French took me. Though I wonder: "From Russia With Love" works in English because "From X With Love" is a standard English phrase, so you really need the equivalent French phrase. Whatever that is.
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[identity profile] akicif.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure about the "la". If you were saying "with love from Anne-Marie" you wouldn't say "Avec l'amour de l'Anne-Marie"....

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I really want it to be unclear if it's the goddess, the planet, or both. I suspect it may not be possible to get that ambiguity in French.
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[identity profile] akicif.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
It is: if you wanted to be unambiguous you would say - the goddesss Venus or the planet Venus - if you're just using the name, you'd leave out the definite article.

See, for example, here or here.

[identity profile] nelc.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah, the French title for From Russia With Love is "Bons baisers de Russie", apparently, which machine translates as "Greetings from Russia". Meanwhile, this page (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080114091446AAhYFfz) suggests "Bises" ("Kisses") so maybe De la Vénus avec Bises? (I think we can assume these are French kisses, full of passion, rather than insipid English kisses, like you give your auntie.)

[identity profile] gbsteve.livejournal.com 2010-10-03 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Bise is the greeting kiss, un baiser is a passionate kiss. Baiser, the verb, is also slang for fucking so you have to be careful.

De Vénus avec Amour is From Venus with Love. If you put L'Amour it's making an allegory of Love.

I am fluent in French btw.
Edited 2010-10-03 23:16 (UTC)

[identity profile] whswhs.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
I am glad to have that caution confirmed. I had been told by a friend that baiser was no longer safe to use for "kiss" for that reason, and that embrasser was moving into that semantic place. Of course, for Bond, "Good Fucks from Russia" seems rather plausible.

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 07:08 am (UTC)(link)
This sort of confirms what I was beginning to think, that it's impossible to do this so that it's not clear if it means the planet or the goddess. Oh well, maybe another language would work better.

[identity profile] gonzo21.livejournal.com 2010-10-04 01:58 pm (UTC)(link)
According to my french speaking fiance:

De Vénus avec Amour