qui mesurera l’importance d’être earnest

16:42 Jan 18, 2019 

FWIW, his play "The Importance of Being Earnest" is translated as "L'Importance d'être constant." But presumably that's because Constant, like earnest/Ernest, is a name as well as a word. IOW constant of course doesn't mean earnest, but it's the best they could do to create the necessary play on words in French.

14:28 Jan 18, 2019 

I have indeed rewritten most of the text, but I wanted to be sure I understood it! And I quite like the idea of a reference to OW.

14:24 Jan 18, 2019 

I don't see why you're translating this in the first place. It needs a complete rewrite, since English-speaking readers don't need an explanation of this word.
Also, "earnest" has slightly negative connotations to me - it implies lacking a sense of humour.

14:00 Jan 18, 2019 

I think you’ve got it, something like, “who can judge the importance of being earnest for themselves.”

13:58 Jan 18, 2019 

"Judge" would be fine, I think, or "gauge", or even perhaps "appreciate". The leader is certainly the subject. The meaning is "évaluer". The Trésor gives this quotation from Cocteau: "Je me demande, mon petit, si tu mesures la gravité de cette visite".

12:59 Jan 18, 2019 

the importance

12:59 Jan 18, 2019 

the title is "l'importance d'être constant" - the translator went for a first name that was also an adjective, earnest not fitting the bill

12:57 Jan 18, 2019 

I would have thought the idea was "which give the measure of..." — except for the fact that 'mesurera' is singular, and so can only refer to 'leader' rather than the 3 qualities.
I think the sense here is more like "...leader, who will have to weigh up the importance..." — though from the assertions amde, one can only assume there isn't really much 'weighing up' to do — these seem to be essential, so perhaps it's more like "... who will be able to judge for themselves how important...". Don't forget in passing that we more often use 'can' in EN ('be able to' in the future) where FR would not use the much stronger 'pouvoir', but it would be used in EN: "I can see a man by that car" > "Je vois un homme..."; so this is one instance perhaps where that notion of 'can' needs to be considered?

12:46 Jan 18, 2019 

I think "indicate" is not quite right. It's missing the sense of something being measured, judged, evaluated, don't you think?