In the Agora: Why the French hate George W. Bush

« Radical Changes Ahead for High School Basketball? | Main | Abortion TV »

November 15, 2004

Why the French hate George W. Bush

The sources of French conduct are, at times, obscure. I have, from time to time, wondered how the French can have such a multilateral rep when their policies are usually so blatantly self-serving (as in their recent cowboy escapade in the Ivory Coast). There is an institutional explanation for this: That Franklin Roosevelt's other bad decision, putting France on the Security Council, has permanently skewed the UN in favor of the balance of power circa 1805. Then there is the cultural explanation: That the French are the way they are because of that morass of domestic political, social and economic regimes, flavored by history, that we refer to as "culture." (In political science-speak, we call that non-explanation "normative," meaning "indefinable and probably hypocritical.") However, we can safely rule out the Realpolitik explanation, because if we were designing a world order based on power alone, the French would be no more than a high-ranking middle power, on a rough par with Italy and well below Japan, Germany, and India.

Policy Review recently published a long article that purported to have found the roots of French foreign policy in a mid-century essay stating that the Francophone world should rise up against the Anglo-Saxon one, but like many things French, it was long and boring and didn't live up to its billing. Also, because I am an uncultured American, I found the essay sheerly incomprehensible. I only know what the article says because later on I read a nice precis of it in another journal.

Then the thought struck me: What if the diplomatic difficulties between the U.S. and France were linguistic? I had been bored to tears by reading a French philosophy article poorly rendered into English--but what if they were aggravated beyond words when American English is transmuted into French? And could the famously twisted syntax of the current resident of the Maison Blanche be even worse when put into Voltaire's tongue?

I tested this hypothesis with the invaluable aid of Altavista's Babelfish. I took selected statements from the White House website and translated them into French. But because I don't speak French--sorry, I've only studied Spanish and Latin and Japanese and Chinese and Kentuckian--I needed some way to find out how the French would perceive Dubya's words. So I then used Babelfish to retranslate the French into English.

How did Bush fare? Well, the most famous passage of the 2002 State of the Union gives a good example:

L'Irak continue a afficher son hostilite vers l'Amerique et a soutenir la terreur.... .Les etats aiment ces derniers, et leurs allies de terroriste, constituent un axe de mal, armant pour menacer la paix du monde....Nous developperons et deploierons les defenses efficaces de missile pour proteger l'Amerique et nos allies contre l'attaque soudaine. (applaudissements.)

I was pained to note that even when the French hear applause, they do not hear good hearty clapping, but rather snobbish applaudissements.

How did the French hear this speech?

L'Irak continues to post its hostility towards l Americ and to support terror. The Iraqi mode traced to develop l'anthrax, and the nerve gas, and the nuclear weapons during more d'une decade. C'est a mode which already employed gas of poison to assassinate thousands of its own citizens -- leaving the bodies of the mothers s'est blotti above their dead children. C'est a mode which was d'accord on international inspections -- then given a kick out of the inspectors. C'est a mode which has something to hide civilized world.

The states like the latter, and their allies of terrorist, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten peace of the world. By seeking weapons of destruction of mass, these modes pose a tomb and an increasing danger. They could provide these arms to the terrorists, giving them the means of d'assortir their hatred. They could attack our allies or try to make blackmail in the United States. In n'importe which of these cases, the price of l'indifference would be catastrophic.

We will work narrowly with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state mixed liability company the materials, technology, and l'expertise to make and deliver weapons of the destruction of mass. We will develop and deploy effective defenses of missile to protect l Americ and our allies against l'attaque sudden (applause.) And all the nations should know: L'Amerique will make what is necessary to ensure our safety of nation's.

No wonder Paris turned into an adversary of the United States! Practically the only phrases that translate well are Bush's promises to "work narrowly" against an "axis of evil." And the grounds for going to war? I am sure the French have no idea what Saddam "then given a kick out of the inspectors" means, much less how it forms a casus belli.

I do, however, find it amusing that Babelfish found the concept of "indifference" untranslateable. There is something in the idea of President Bush condemning "l'indifference" that, as the French would say, turns up the corners of my mouth.

Posted by Paul Musgrave at November 15, 2004 12:00 AM

Comments

Surely something is always lost in translation, but presumably human translators are a bit more elegant than Babelfish.

What you've highlighted, I think, is the problem with using an algorithm to do the difficult job of translation, which at its best requires a person to be immersed not just in vocabulary and linguistic rules, but also in the idioms and cultures of the two speakers.

I realize I may be running the risk of taking your point too seriously, but ...

Posted by: Caleb at November 15, 2004 11:07 AM | permalink

I'm pretty sure that was tongue-in-cheek (god I hope so). Babelfish is a joke for getting across any kind of subtlety, and anybody who's studied all the languages he listed up there knows it...

Posted by: paul at November 15, 2004 11:17 AM | permalink

Babelfish always puts me in mind of the old computer translation joke: The CIA built a machine (supposedly) to translate Russian to English. To test it, they typed in the Russian for "The flesh is weak but the spirit is willing." The output in English was "The meat is rotten but the vodka is excellent."

Posted by: Paul at November 15, 2004 11:36 AM | permalink

I'm thinking of Saddam serenading Hans Blix with "I Get a Kick Out of You," reminiscent of the opening scene in Blazing Saddles.

Posted by: Eric Seymour at November 15, 2004 12:12 PM | permalink

As an undergrad, computer scientist friend of mine asked me about translation machines. He knew that I enjoy doing translations and was curious about the latest implemenation of some translation engine on the web.

Almost simultaneously, he said, "Wow, it's great!" and I said "Ack, it's awful." It all depends, I guess, what you're looking for. I remember putting a famous line from the Bible in French: "Que la lumiere soit!" ("Let there be light!") It came back--this is an exact quote--

"How the light it be!"

We've got a long, long way to go.

Posted by: Jason Kuznicki at November 15, 2004 12:20 PM | permalink

Twenty-four centuries ago, Plato taught us "likes attract likes." Twenty centuries ago, Livy taught us Hannibal thought the Gauls were "perfidious" by nature. Five centuries ago, Machiavelli came to the same conclusion.

In essence, the French don't "like" us because we are not like them.

Posted by: Tony Harrison at November 15, 2004 01:20 PM | permalink

Not to harp on computer translation, but I don't think it's as bad as you make out. An interesting translation site is the IM Translator at http://translation.paralink.com/ It will do an automatic "back translation" if you wish. Here is its English-French-English translation of that paragraph from the State of the Union:

Iraq continues displaying its enmity towards America and to support dread. Iraquien regime conspired to develop coal and neurotoxic gas and nuclear weapon since more than a decade. It is a regime which has already used suffocating gas to slaughter thousands of his own citizens, by leaving mothers' bodies nestles on their dead children. It is a regime which agreed with international examination then empties the inspectors. It is a regime with something to hide from the civilised world.

A little better than Babblefish (which has trouble with apostrophes).

Posted by: Bill Loughner at November 15, 2004 08:36 PM | permalink

P.S. I should have included that the site I mentioned above gives an English-French-English translation of "Let there be light." as "Let there be light." We've come a long way.

Posted by: Bill Loughner at November 15, 2004 08:42 PM | permalink

P.S.: It's a joke:

http://tinyurl.com/6xjdx

"THE FROG JUMPING OF THE COUNTY OF CALAVERAS

"Eh bien! this Smiley nourished some terriers a rats, and some cocks of combat, and some cats, and all sorts of things: and with his rage of betting one no had more of repose....."

Posted by: Paul at November 15, 2004 08:51 PM | permalink