It’s getting closer. Anphlo finished the bulk of the French translation yesterday.
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Awesome! Can’t wait!
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Excellent. I would never have thought of using the adjective métis. Nice.
I’ve done some translation work (French to English) and it’s hard yakka (Aussie slang for work).
Well done Anphlo and Joseph.
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Someone complained that métis is racist.
Oh really? Racist? Why?
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Person A: ‘‘Here’s this guy in a dress, a yoga teacher who plays guitar and dances in his garden, he took an oath of poverty, he mixes varieties of plants to save the nature and the future of humanity.’’
Person B:‘’ But, but, but, i heard he uses a word that some people think possibly could be offensive to the most overly
sensitive people on the planet.‘’
What should person A do? Tell person B that life is more complicated than words can explain and words can’t be mean.
I think so.
Thank you Hugo for helping me keep things in perspective!
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Métis(se) can have a derogatory meaning (when applied to a person) but it has a technical one as well, from the verb métisser - to cross pollinate. I don’t think Anphlo would have chosen this word if the context allowed the pejorative connotation. We’re talking plants here folks.
I think the French title is beautiful!
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I’d like to propose replacing “métis” with métissé ou croisé. Same meaning without the racist connotation.
I felt bad enough replacing one word (two syllables) with three. Replacing landrace with 5 words (12 syllables) is too much for me to bear.
And I’m not worrying any more about what people think. People will either like my work or not, and can self-select to associate with my way of writing or not.
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I meant either “métissé” or “croisé” . Run it by some native French speakers.
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This is part of the seed library census which is getting translated into many questions, can you lovely French speakers help with the recommended words for these sentences?
B8 Seed that are likely to have crossed are clearly labeled as “crossed”, “landrace”, or “grex”.
B8 Les graines susceptibles d’avoir été croisées sont clairement étiquetées comme « croisées », « landrace » ou « grex ».
B13 We screen for and remove PVP (Plant Variety Protected) seeds.
B13 Nous recherchons et retirons les graines PVP (Plant Variety Protected).
----Are there Plant Variety Protected seed laws and if so what is the correct language here?
Thank you!!
Thanks @Hugo for making the connection. I believe @Anphlo should be associated with this. I cannot reply to this clearly yet.
agree, when amphlo’s work stabilizing the vocabulary of the french version of the book, then this translated vocabulary can be used in other situations
Ok sounds good, thank you!
Hi Julia,
As Isabelle and Thomas said (thank you guys for answering) let me first finish taking a final decision on those terms in the translation of Joseph’s book. It’s a process…I like having the translation team’s feedback on them and have them be validated by Joseph before I’ll get back to you about it. I’m on the last stretch of it and that should not be too long maybe about 2 months from now if everything goes according to plan. If you do need a urgent translation, email me.
Hi everyone,
I’ll give my input on the translation of “landrace”; hopefully, this kind of input is still OK and welcomed.
The last title I’ve seen uses “Semences Paysannes Métisées”
At the very least, I would spell Métisées like this: Métissées (two s’s). I’m providing more input below.
When I first read the title, I was a bit confused by this word at first, as I’ve never seen that word used in that context. Immediately, it evokes humans with parents of different ethnic origin. The Métis are also, in Canada, an indigenous people with mixed European and North American Indigenous heritage.
Now, from the context, already knowing what a landrace is, and opening up a dictionary, I undestand that we’re talking about mixed varieties. And I don’t think the word Métissées is offensive.
My next train of thought is that the word landrace isn’t new and is already being translated in french.
There are a few translations that I’ve found, but I’ve picked a couple:
- “Semences paysannes” (no adjective, same title as currently without the word Métissées) or “variétés paysannes”
This one rings best to my ear and heart. It mainly implies that the grower saves and select their own seeds.
The word “landrace” doesnt explicitly mention crossing/mixing, so it might be ok not to have that in French either?
[1] Semence paysanne — Wikipédia
- “Variété population”
This one is probably more “exact”, but doesn’t sound as good. Maybe due to the use of a noun as an adjective.
I’ve seen in used in France [3] and Quebec [4]. While semences paysannes is prettier for a title (IMO), “Variété population” might be more appropriate (IMO) when explaining the subject (i.e. inside the book) as it evokes more the genetic diversity.
[2] Variété population — Wikipédia
[3] Variété population : Dictionnaire d’agroécologie
[4] Variétés population / Landrace - Le jardin des vie-la-joie
Apart from the title, I think both terms could be explained defined and used in a French version of the book. This would allow francophone readers to have access to vocabulary that best explains/transmits their projects and ideas.
The following page [5] attempts to define both:
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