Difference between revisions of "Talk:Girard0242"

Revision as of 22:20, 22 June 2009

A NOTE ON THE TRANSCRIPTION OF FATHER BERNARD’S LETTERS

This translation is based on transcripts which appear in the Lettres reçues d’Océanie (Letters received from Oceania), compiled and transcribed by Father Charles Girard. The current edition, available on CD-ROM and due for publication in 2009, brings together all the letters received from Oceania by the general administration of the Marist Fathers from 1836 to 1854. The transcripts of Father Bernard’s letters are provided in the appendix.

Each letter in the Lettres reçues d’Océanie is preceded by a document number, a title and a physical description of the letter concerned. In the interests of clarity, this information has been retained in the translation. Readers should note that the abbreviation APM used in the title refers to the Archives des Pères maristes (the Marist General Archive in Rome).

In Girard’s transcript of Bernard’s letters, two types of footnotes appear. The first, referred to as critical apparatus notes, are marked in the transcript by a letter (a, b, c…). They indicate, for example, where words have been crossed out or where the writer has written below the line. These footnotes are only relevant to the transcription of the document and are therefore omitted from the translation. The second type of footnote is numbered. Here Girard provides explanations, cross references and identifications. This historical and contextual information has been retained in the translation and is preceded by the indicator ‘Girard’s note’.

A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION OF FATHER BERNARD’S LETTERS

The reader is reminded that the documents in question are personal letters; in other words, they do not constitute a formal piece of writing. Moreover, it is evident that Father Bernard was not overly careful in terms of word choice, punctuation and sentence structure. In consequence, his writing contains some long, unwieldy sentences, awkward repetitions and the occasional fragmented sentence. In Bernard’s defence, however, living conditions and time constraints may have affected the quality of his writing. Indeed, he writes in the third letter ‘that time is pressing’ and that he does not have time to write many letters. In the present translation, Bernard’s stylistic idiosyncrasies are retained. To facilitate comprehension, however, some words and punctuation appearing in square brackets have been added by the translator.

Italics in square brackets signify Girard’s addition to the transcription. These additions are mainly used to number paragraphs or subject matter, or indicate a new page in the original document. Italics used within the document itself indicate that the passage in question was underlined in the original manuscript. To avoid confusion, boat names and foreign words will not be italicised in the translation, as is otherwise the convention.

Occasionally, Bernard spells a foreign word or name as he hears it, for example ‘Haubart-Town’ for ‘Hobart-Town’ and ‘Acaroa’ for ‘Akaroa’. In this translation, standard forms are used, unless footnoted by Girard. This rule also applies to French names, which are written in their correct form, for consistency. For example, ‘Maîtrepierre’ replaces ‘Maitrepierre’, ‘Petit-Jean’ replaces ‘Petit Jean’ and ‘Forest’ replaces ‘Foret’. In addition, Bernard sometimes uses Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…). These are retained in the translation.

All abbreviated words are completed with bracketed letters, as in the transcript, for example, ‘J(esus) C(hrist)’. Those abbreviations which have no English equivalent are translated as complete words. For example, ‘s(ain)t prière’ is written as ‘holy prayer’. .

As in the transcript, words or sections of the text that are indecipherable or missing are indicated by the following sign [--].

Finally, the translator has included additional footnotes relating to translation issues and to provide supplementary historical information.