The terminal “t” is silent in French - think “petit”.
I’m thinking of Cecil. :eek:
This is indeed often correct, but of course the character’s original name in French is Pirlouit, not Peewit. It says in the fan site Gfactor linked to that he was renamed Peewee in the US.
Now, I must say that Quartz is right that there’s a fair amount of satire in the Smurfs’ comic books. Of course, it’s not Asterix or anything close, but I must say that rereading my albums as a teenager and young adult, I saw a few references and jokes that had gone completely over my head as a child. I’m especially thinking of the recipe Gargamel actually used in order to create the Smurfette in the eponymous album (nominally a “Formule pour animer une figurine tout en la dotant d’une nature féminine”, that is, a “Formula to Animate a Figurine Instilling within it a Feminine Essence”). I’ve actually found it here (the article, by the way, appears to be trying to use half-assed arguments in order to convince us that Gargamel is Jewish, which as I’ve said I don’t believe for a moment; the Smurfs’ world just isn’t our own), but I won’t try to translate it, since it uses a fair amount of untranslatable expressions. Maybe Valteron can try, if he has time to spare. 
Of course, seeing Peyo’s comments about women as reported by Gfactor leads me to wonder if this “formula” was intended solely as a joke. And it’s worth noting that Smurfette is pretty much an airheaded bimbo, both before and after becoming beautiful through Papa Smurf’s intervention. But the other Smurfs’ attitude towards her, on the other hand, changes a lot after the intervention, so it could be argued that Peyo is also criticizing men and their shallowness. And at the end, the Smurfette takes the only right decision to leave the village, regardless of how much heartbreak it will cause her and the other Smurfs. So maybe she isn’t so dumb after all.
All these themes that are found in the Smurfs’ graphic novels, I believe were somewhat lost when the characters were transferred to the cartoon medium. Maybe what Peyo was afraid was seeing his characters start chewing gum and drinking Coke, but I believe what really happened is that they lost some complexity. In the comic books, the Smurfs have all the failings of men. They fight amongst them for power, sex, even for some invented division between the North and the South (and no, it’s not over slavery). Now, I must admit I haven’t watched the cartoons for a long time, but from what I remember what happens to them there isn’t nearly as complex. They now basically need Gargamel or other external stimuli in order to have their peaceful existence disturbed.
Anyway, maybe that’s just the snob in me who’s talking. (But who’s snobbish about the bloody Smurfs, I ask you? :D) Still, there is one seemingly minor thing that disturbs me a lot about the Smurfs’ move to American cartoons. In the original French, the village’s leader was known as the Grand Schtroumpf. This means “Great Smurf”, so yeah, basically the elder. But for some reason they decided that he would become “Papa Smurf”. For some reason, this opens up in my mind a whole can of worms that I would rather have seen remain closed. :eek:
Ingredients, as I read them: “coquetterie,” prejudice, crocodile tears, the brain of a bird (a linnet), powdered viper tongue, roguerie, a tissue of lies (transparent), gluttony, bad faith, “inconscience” (amorality?), pride, envy, sentimentality, blunder and ruse, volatility and obstinacy, and a candle burning at both ends.
I’ve taken great liberties with the literal meanings to give better understanding (I think), and I left out all of the “measurements.” Take it for what it’s worth.
That’s probably as good as we can get for a translation. Many of the expressions in the “formula” don’t translate very well. Does “a candle burning at both ends” mean anything in English? In French, “brûler la chadelle par les deux bouts” apparently means having a wasteful lifestyle. (I learnt something, I thought it basically meant working too much or being nervous to an excess, but I can see how we can make the claim that someone who works too much and someone who has Paris Hilton’s lifestyle are “wasting” something, be it their health and/or money.)
As well, “avoir une tête de linotte” in French means being dumb, you probably kept the meaning intact with “the brain of a bird”. As for “inconscience”, I took it as meaning a lack of awareness of the consequences of your actions, rather than immorality.
Yes, it means the same in English:
My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
I don’t consider my mother, much less my aunt (who’s made remarks like “I don’t mind them coming here to pick up lettuce, but - to get office jobs? Hell no!”) as particularly PC or sensitive, but their opinion of profiles like those of, say, David Schwimmer (Ross in Friends) is “nice Mediterranean nose, yes sir!”
One of my college classmates in Barcelona had one of those and got a nose job as a graduation present (1994). The reaction of the whole female sector of the class was “ohmyGodwhathappened! Are you all right? Your poor nose! You did it on purpose? No, there wasn’t anything wrong with your nose, I liked your nose! No it’s… you don’t look bad, you just look like another million guys.”
I once did a project which included a dozen Swede coworkers. When I came back from the first meeting and Mom asked “how did it go?” my answer was “eh, well, well, it went well. But you know what? All those guys playing vikings on movies? Vikings my ass! The twelve vikings we had at the meeting all had baby noses! Pasqual Maragall noses!”
While his posture, taste in clothing and househusbandry leave much to be desired, there’s nothing wrong with Gargamel’s nose.
I’m surprised nobody has brought up the Robert Smigel Anna Nicole Smurf bit, which is available on Youtube.
Snobbery on the Internet is like porn on the Internet. Whatever it is, there’s undoubtably some message board somewhere where every single member is fanatically devoted to say, Ding-Dongs, and if you happen to prefer Ho-Ho’s instead, well, you are just a lesser person.
I once had a similar experience where I stumbled across a message board dedicated to the Kirby series of video games, which, if you know nothing of it, is all sparkling stars, pink puffballs, sugar-coated magical lands, and adorable little creatures with giant eyes. The amount of snobbery I saw there blew my mind. :eek:
All of the expressions in my translation are well understood in English, except for those in quotation marks. In English, “coquetterie” would be translated in any number of ways, but the flavor is best conveyed through the usual English practice of stealing. We use the word “coquette,” but not, AFAIK, “coquetterie.” “Inconscience,” to my knowledge, does not exist in English, and is not translatable by any one word. “Amorality,” the inability or disinclination to consider moral aspects of an action, was my best guess at what Peyo meant. On further reflection, I think “recklessness” is better.
And “birdbrain” is the common English version, but “brain of a bird” seemed more…culinary.