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Translation - English-French - It's like puzzle solving.

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Category Thoughts

Title
It's like puzzle solving.
Text
Submitted by kafetzou
Source language: English

It's like puzzle solving.

Title
C'est un peu comme résoudre un puzzle
Translation
French

Translated by CocoT
Target language: French

C'est un peu comme résoudre un puzzle
Remarks about the translation
Visiblement, le contexte manque ici pour en donner une traduction satisfaisante.
Littéralement, cela signifie « c’est comme résoudre un puzzle/une énigme ». On pourrait dire « Sudoku is a game… it’s like puzzle-solving », alors on dirait quelque chose comme « c’est un genre de puzzle ». Au figuré, on ferait allusion à une situation difficile à comprendre ou un problème difficile à résoudre. Alors on peut traduire par « C’est un casse-tête », « Cela me laisse perplexe » ou même « Je n’y comprend rien »… les alternatives sont nombreuses.

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Later comment (after the first three)
Ok, I see what you meant :)
I've thus removed my first option ("Cela me laisse perplexe") and I'm replacing it by something else. I think the new version works but I'm leaving the old commentary for info's sake.
The comment about how using or not using the "to me" might change the translation partly makes sense but then, in a hurried conversation, I'm not sure it really makes a difference, as I believe that the person speaking can still make reference to his/her own experience no matter what (with or without the "to me"). Interestingly, in this very case, even if we first got the deep meaning wrong, Kaeftzou did mean "to me", but it was just implicit.
Oh, and I added the "un peu" because I think the comparison sounds more natural that way.
Validated by Francky5591 - 24 January 2007 14:58





Last messages

Author
Message

24 January 2007 12:37

Francky5591
Number of messages: 12396
Moi aussi, "cela me laisse perplexe", car ce pourrait être également une description du travail d'un enquêteur ("c'est comme résoudre un puzzle"...)ou d'un chercheur...

24 January 2007 14:03

Francky5591
Number of messages: 12396
"cela me laisse perplexe" serait plutôt traduit par "it's like puzzle solving to me"

24 January 2007 14:24

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
Sorry, everybody - the context was how I feel about Cucumis. I used to waste a lot of time doing puzzles, like crossword puzzles and Text Twist (I don't know if you guys have other word puzzles online in French), but now that I've found Cucumis, I don't do that anymore, because translating on Cucumis is like puzzle solving for me.

24 January 2007 14:50

Francky5591
Number of messages: 12396
OK, I understand now, so it has to be translated at the first degree : "c'est comme résoudre un puzzle "(for me)

24 January 2007 14:56

Francky5591
Number of messages: 12396
But you should notice that for translations into other languages, as for instance in spanish it has been translated the wrong way, and maybe in other languages too, I'm going to check

24 January 2007 15:13

CocoT
Number of messages: 165
Yup, it probably snowballed, there... That's why I wrote a longer comment and offered "c'est un genre de puzzle", but then I don't know if people read the commentary or offered similar alternatives.

25 January 2007 04:56

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
I actually liked CocoT's version: "C’est comme un casse-tête" or whatever he said. You can't really say, "Sudoku is a game… it’s like puzzle-solving," because Sudoku IS a type of puzzle. The word puzzle is quite broad in English, which is why I think "casse-tête" fits better.

25 January 2007 16:29

CocoT
Number of messages: 165
I guess the only thing about "casse-tête" is that, while it does refer to those Chinese wooden puzzles that are difficult to solve (I'm sure you the ones I mean), in French it does have a little bit of a bad connotation. When something is "un vrai casse-tête" to you, then you're usually not particularly happy about it and do not really derive pleasure from solving it (other than being glad to get rid of the problem :P)... so I don't know...

25 January 2007 16:29

cucumis
Number of messages: 3785
I also think that in the context you described, "puzzle" should not be translated by "puzzle" but "casse-tête" or "énigme".

25 January 2007 16:31

CocoT
Number of messages: 165
Note that it is not directly compared to a puzzle but to the action of "resoudre" a puzzle. I would personally keep the "resoudre", what do you think?

26 January 2007 15:31

nava91
Number of messages: 1268
"È proprio un rompicapo!"

26 January 2007 06:07

kafetzou
Number of messages: 7963
Sorry - in light of what CocoT wrote above about "casse-tête" I agree that "puzzle" is a better translation, since I was talking about something I get a lot of pleasure out of.