Sep 17, 2009 21:50
14 yrs ago
French term

les abîmes de nos propres esprits

French to English Art/Literary Esoteric practices automatic writing
Hello,

Could you help me with the phrase? The text:

Nos réflexions après coup, nous conduire à penser que l'au-delà, ou *les abîmes de nos propres esprits*, sont peuplés.

Thank you in advance for you help and comments!
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Non-PRO (1): writeaway

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Proposed translations

10 hrs
Selected

the depths of our own minds/the human mind OR of our own spirit/the human spirit

This is more challenging than it at first seems, I feel.

Firstly, I think 'depths' works better than 'abysses' because we tend to use abyss as a singular in English and I think we need to keep the idea of the plural here. Depths keeps the idea of dark crevices, though (incidently I think a nice idea could be 'the dark corners of', but this changes the connotations slightly).

Secondly, I get the feeling that the 'nos propres' as 'our own' may refer not just to whoever is doing the talking but to 'us' as humans. If this the case 'the human mind/spirit' works better, perhaps. If the sense is simply a group of people then I would stick with 'our own'.

Lastly, there is the wonderful word 'esprit', which causes all sorts of trouble in translation. The distinction between mind and spirit is much clearer in English than in French. 'Mind' may be appropriate but I would tend towards 'spirit' given the spiritual nature of the text and given that: "en métaphysique et dans les religions, le mot esprit désigne normalement l'élément immatériel incarné en l'être humain". (Wikipédia)
Example sentence:

There are many dark and destructive impulses in the depths of the human mind.

These inner worlds cannot be investigated with physical instruments, but only by delving into the depths of our own minds and consciousness, and this requires many lives of self-purification and self-conquest.

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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you, Lianne! Thanks for your comments!"
1 hr

the abysses of our own minds

WThe Abyss of The Mind And Heart. The jungle of this universe,where all eventually must enter(drop in).Silence is the cry of those who have succeeded and ..."
www.geocities.com/~xookeeper/

"AoC Traveling Home - I. The Abyss of the Mind - Quests - Age of Conan Database - MMO DB."
aoc.mmodb.com/.../traveling-home-i-the-abyss-of-the-mind-182.php

"The Abyss Of Mans Mind Souls cast not a shadow on this earth. No light or darkness where souls exist. Hidden in the abyss of mans mind, ..."
answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid... -
Note from asker:
Thank you, B D Finch!
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