A Guide for the Perplexed

Translations of All Non-English Phrases in Patrick O'Brian's Sea-Tales

 

 

1st Classic Book-by-Book Edition


edited by

Anthony Gary Brown

 

© 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005   (3rd August 2005)

 

Click Here for the New Alphabetic Version of Perplexed

and

Click Here for a Free Download of Alphabetic Perplexed in Printable Word Processor Files

 

The Chief Translators

The work of translating has been a cooperative effort, and relatively little is the work of a single hand. The translators, with their special expertises, are:

David Bird
Latin, Greek

Gary Brown
French, Italian, Latin; Editor

Anna Ravano
Italian, Latin, French, Spanish

and

Francis Miles
a multi-linguist who contributed extensively to the 2002 revision of the 1996 original

In addition, the 2002 revision could not have proceeded without the extensive research help of the following:  E.K.B., Jeffrey Charles, Susan Wenger, Isabelle Hayes, Bruce Trinque, Adam Quinan, Rowen84, Lois Montbertrand, and Samuel Bostock

Introduction

If you've ever been perplexed by Patrick O'Brian's flow of Latin, French, Irish, Greek, and Spanish (not to talk of Catalan, Turkish, Polynesian and a few other tongues) then here, we hope, is your essential vade mecum. Accurate translations of all - well, almost all - the 'foreign' in O'Brian, easy as kiss-my-hand.

The entries are arranged in strict alphabetic order (so all groups of words are treated as if spelled as one:  hence afflatus precedes a fortiori) and are given as written by O’Brian (so la garce is in the ‘l’ section, not under ‘g’).  The page references are all to the Norton first USA editions (which are identical to all but the earliest UK Collins / Fontana first editions). We've included all 20 Aubrey / Maturin books, from Master and Commander through to Blue at the Mizzen, and added the early sea-tales The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore at the end.

Our General Guidelines:

  • We have attempted literal, even pedantic, accuracy rather than literary elegance (which we happily leave to O'Brian). We believe that whilst O'Brian's readers may occasionally need assistance with the words themselves, they seldom need assistance with the wider meaning. To this end we have tried to provide English translations that follow the word order of the foreign original, even at the risk of some stiffness of expression.  However we have occasionally made notes on the context of the phrase where a literal translation either remains obscure or has proved impossible
  • We have omitted most medical and botanical terms, where literal translation is so often unhelpful even when possible. Kerry Webb maintains an informative and enjoyable guide - Maturin's Medicine -  to all the medical terms found in O’Brian.
  • We have omitted most single 'foreign' words that can be found in a decent English dictionary

  • Almost all ‘foreign looking’ words that you cannot find here in ‘Perplexed’ are in fact archaic English and can thus be found in decent dictionaries
  • We have translated even those passages that O'Brian himself translates, in these cases being particularly literal in our contribution
  • Where we don't know the meaning for sure, we have tried to avoid guesswork. We rely on you to help us out!
  • We have not attempted to draw attention to every single typo in the published novels, although they are common in the 'foreign'. However many of Aubrey's errors are, of course, both deliberate and witty on O'Brian's part - we have usually drawn attention to these. Also, note that O'Brian's French is often highly idiomatic, with the spelling itself capturing how everyday, rapid and casual French is spoken.  [Note: Larry Breed has started a new project identifying slips and typos in the printed O’Brian works:  Errata in the Aubrey / Maturin Canon.  Larry welcomes contributions from readers.]

If you want even more information or discussion than we've provided in our Guide for the Perplexed, then you can find civilized, witty and erudite conversation about O'Brian's finer points in the Patrick O'Brian Archive . And if you want to know how to pronounce the Latin in the Roman rather than the English Style, and perhaps even learn a little about how Latin is constructed, then mure hic stimulate precor .

There are also other entertaining and informative web sites relating to Patrick O'Brian that you may care to visit: Gibbons Burke hosts pages that are a virtual cornucopia of POBiana , including one detailing all the many musical references in the Aubrey / Maturin series; Ian Rowan hosts an excellent non-fiction bibliography of works pertaining to sailing, warfare and the early 19th century.  Anna Ravano has added a fun site – POB’s Riches – listing all the various literary quotations in O’Brian.  Enjoy!

Abbreviations

L ..........Latin
F .........French
E .........English
S .........Spanish
It .........Italian
Ir .........Irish Gaelic
Scots...Scots Dialect
Gk .......Greek
Lit: …...Literally

 

The Books

M&C                      Master and Commander  (1969)
PC                          Post Captain  (1972)
HMS                       HMS Surprise   (1973)
TMC                       The Mauritius Command  (1977)
DI                            Desolation Island  (1978)
FW                          The Fortune of War  (1979)
SM                          The Surgeon’s Mate  (1980)
IM                           The Ionian Mission  (1981)
TH                           Treason’s Harbour  (1983)
FSW                        The Far Side of the World  (1984)
RM                          The Reverse of the Medal  (1986)
LM                          The Letter of Marque  (1988)
TGS                        The Thirteen Gun Salute  (1989)
NC                          The Nutmeg of Consolation  (1991)
C/T                         Clarissa Oakes (UK title) / The Truelove (USA title)  (1992)
WDS                       The Wine Dark Sea  (1993)
COM                      The Commodore  (1994)
YA                           The Yellow Admiral  (1996)
HD                          The Hundred Days  (1998)
BM                          Blue at the Mizzen  (1999)
’21’                         21: The Final Unfinished Voyage (2004 fragment)

 

GO                          The Golden Ocean  (1956)
US                           The Unknown Shore  (1959)


Don't forget that most net browsers have a 'find' or 'search' option on the menu bar. So you can just look up particular phrases or words that are just rattling round in your minds or which you've heard on the several complete audio recordings of O'Brian, for example those produced by Books on Tape .

There are certain to be omissions and errors in our work; these are undoubtedly due to the sloth, ignorance, fecklessness and misspent youth of your Editor. But please do let me know of any gaps in our labours. If you are genteel enough to pretend that you are pointing out a very mere slip of pen or attention, then you will be entered on the 'Roll of Honour' of those who have helped better the final document. We intend to publish revised editions from time to time, so contributions are always welcome. Don't forget: even if you have no idea what a 'foreign' phrase we've missed out means in English, please send it to us for translation and inclusion.

If you have comments, please e-mail me direct.

Folks Who Have Helped Out:  Roll of Honour

(Occasional Contributors, Correctors and Omission-Spotters, in random order)

Gibbons Burke (with especial thanks for his expertise and labour in attending to the HTML code for this site); Cathal O'Brien; Richard Ellis; Ed Kane; Allan Janus; Jack Merton; Randy Johnson; Deborah Whitman; Scott Powell; Philip Anderson; Adam Quinan; Richard Benedict; Elisabeth Shields; Gerry Strey; Eldad Ganin; Rafael Landin; Ema Nemes; Tim Sterrett; Don Goyette; Donal O'Sullivan; Richard Ward; Alex Frakt; Eric Raymond; David Van Baak; Roger Giner-Sorolla ; Richard Ward; Bob Frewen; Andy Evans; Pierangelo Celle; Mary Stolzi; Chris Moseley; Francis Miles; Bob Bridges; Juan Francisco Castilla Conejo; Don Seltzer; Lindsay Hubert; John Blumel; Jim Whiting; Brian Tansy; Patrick Cullinan; Patrick McGinness.

**In addition, the following helped out greatly with the 2002 revision of the site; indeed Your Editor could not have proceeded without them – E.K.B., Jeffrey Charles, Susan Wenger, Isabelle Hayes, Bruce Trinque, Adam Quinan, Rowen84, Lois Montbertrand, Samuel Bostock, Bill Nyden.

 

MASTER AND COMMANDER

 

DEDICATION

Mariae lembi nostri duci et magistrae do dedico
I present and dedicate [this book] to Mary, the commander and mistress of our yacht (L)

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

J'ai pris mon bien là où je l'ai trouvé
I've taken my riches from anywhere I found them (F; often attributed in this form to the 17th C. playwright Jean-Baptiste Molière, but it was also the motto of the Pleiade school of French poets of the 16th century.)

 

CHAPTER ONE

p12
teniente
Lieutenant (S)

p 14
manger
to eat (F)

mangiare
to eat (It)

pollo
chicken (It / S)

vino
wine (It / S)

désirer
want, desire (F)

cosare
sew (bad S; correct = coser)

teniente
lieutenant (S)

capitan
captain (S)

p 16
Bello soleil
beautiful sun (bello=It; soleil=F)

tramontana
north wind (It)

p 24
douceurs
lit: sweeteners; small bribes or tips (F)

p 32
aliquid amari
something bitter (L; from Lucretius, De Rerum Natura: medio de fonte leporum surgit aliquid amari quod in ipsis floribus angat, = 'from the very centre of a fountain of delights arises something bitter that chokes us in our prime [lit: in our very flowering])

 

CHAPTER TWO

p 34
visage de porco
pig's face (F + It)

cinco platos
five courses (S)

p 35
Putain
prostitute (F)

Patois
local dialect (F)

jabalí
wild boar (S)

sengler
wild boar (Cat.)

cepas
a mushroom (Catalan; known as the cèpe in F, the 'penny bun' in E, and funghi porcini in It and American English)

boletus edulis
edible fungus (L; a mushroom known as the cèpe in F, the 'penny bun' in E, and funghi porcini in It and American English )

p 36
raptores
birds of prey (F)

lepidoptera
lit: dainty wings; i.e. butterflies and moths (Gk)

p 39
vice
in place of (L)

p 41
philosophe
a learned man (F)

p 42
res angusta
constrained means (L; usually as res angusta domi = ‘limited wealth at home’, from Juvenal Satires III)

p 54
Christe eleison, kyrie eleison
Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy (Gk; from the Latin Mass)

p 67
Libellus de Natura Scorbuti
A Pamphlet on the Characteristics of Scurvy (L)

p 76
Deh vieni
Do come (It; sung by Susanna in Act IV of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro)

 

CHAPTER THREE

p 110
libeccio
south-west wind (It)

 

CHAPTER FOUR

p 138
stertor
heavy breathing (L)

dura mater
lit: hard mother (L = the outer coating of the brain)

p 144
a luggit corpis sweenie
(perhaps Scots, but perhaps simply an O'Brian joke: many correspondents have hazarded translations – usually involving ears, epaulettes, bodies and pigs – but AGB remains unconvinced by their admittedly inspired guesswork)

what's yon snotty bairn a-greeting at?
what's that grubby child crying about (Scots)

p147
possibilissima
perfectly possible (It)

'Possibile è la cosa, e naturale,
E se Susanna vuol, possibilissima'
'The matter is possible, and natural; and if Susanna wants to, then very possible indeed.'
(It; sung by Figaro in Act II of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro)

 

CHAPTER FIVE

p 174
Non amo te, Sabidi
I do not love you, Sabidius (L; Martial, Epigrammata I; continues - '..I cannot tell you why. I can say this though, I certainly don't love you.' A famous 17th century translation, by Thomas Brown, begins, 'I do not love thee, Dr Fell..'. Brown was threatened with expulsion from Oxford by Dr John Fell, Dean of Christ Church, but was offered a chance to redeem himself if he could translate the Martial epigram impromptu; which he did.)

p 175
raison d'être
reason for existence (F)

p 176
mens rea
a guilty mind (L)

 

CHAPTER SIX

p 180
hortus siccus
dried garden (L = a collection of dried plants)

p 181
quaere
consider, find out, query (L)

persona
mask (L = character)

p 204
Cacafuego
shit-fire (S; quite often used as an actual ship's name by the Spanish)

 

CHAPTER SEVEN

p 217
pénétré
earnest (F; can literally = 'wounded')

Domestique, monsieur
Your (domestic) servant, Sir (F. Aubrey's approximate French leads him to choose the wrong one of two words for servant; polite 18th C. usage was Votre serviteur)

p 221
merci
thank you (F)

p 224
Vou' savez faire
Do you know how to... (F)

Eh, pardi
You don't say! (F, colloquial; cf Alexandre Dumas' use of this phrase as a common exclamation)

p 229
creta alba
white chalk (L)

p 232
Non fui, non sum, non curo
I didn't exist; I don't exist now; I care not. (L; a common tomb inscription with the sense of 'I came from nowhere, and now I've gone - what does such a fleeting life matter anyway?'; see also Post Captain, p 376)

p 233
regrediar
I shall return (L)

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

p 251
Missa Brevis
lit: The Short Mass; often trans. as The Low Mass (L)

p 255
ruse de guerre
a trick in warfare (F)

p 260
Danneborg
The Danish flag (Danish)

p 263
que vengan
let them come (S)

p 265
copito; aguardiente
large glass; 'burning water', i.e. brandy (S)

p 266
querido
my darling (S)

felix
happy (L; he means 'feliz', S)

p 270
indisposèe
indisposed (F = a reference to her period)

p 275
facies
face, i.e. outward appearance (L)

mammothrept
brought up by a grandmother (Gk = 'mummy's boy')