Apprendre le français XI: Appât Page 10

PAGE 10 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Still in the same apartment where the interview is taking place, but Eliza is now on tiptoes taking a heavy book down from a a high shelf.

Unseen interviewer (1): Seriously, aren’t you afraid?

Translation (1): Sérieusement, vous n’avez pas peur ?

Eliza (2): I have something to make the fear go away. Have you heard of the Roman poet Lucretius?

Translation (2): J’ai un truc pour supprimer la peur. Avez-vous entendu parler du poète romain Lucrèce ?

Panel 2: Close-up around some text, the following lines from Lucretius’s De rerum natura, set in a very old typeface or (better if possible) as medieval manuscript: “respice item quam nil ad nos ante acta vetustas/temporis aeterni fuerit, quam nascimur ante./hoc igitur speculum nobis natura futuri/temporis exponit post mortem denique nostram.“

CAPTION – ELIZA NARRATING (3): He explains that we didn’t exist for an eternity before being born, and that wasn’t bad. So why should it be bad once we stop existing?

Translation (3): Il explique que nous n’existions pas pour l’éternité avant d’être né, et que ce n’était pas mauvais. Alors pourquoi le fait de ne plus exister serait une mauvaise chose ?

Panel 3: Eliza, now sitting cross-legged in her big wicker chair. She has the large book she brought down in Panel 1 resting open on her lap. She’s pointing down at something on a page.

Unseen interviewer (4): And you buy that?

Comment (4): “And you buy that?” is an idiom in American English, the literal meaning of which is “Do you really believe that?”

Translation (4): Et vous y croyez ?

Eliza (5): It’s what David Hume told James Boswell as Hume was wasting away, about to die. But Hume was calm and even told jokes.

Translation (5): C’est ce que David Hume a dit à James Boswell alors qu’Hume était en train de dépérir, sur le point de mourir. Mais Hume était calme et plaisantait même.

Panel 4: Eliza looking down at the page of the book open on her lap, reading.

Eliza (6): From Boswell’s account: “I asked him if the thought of annihilation never gave him any uneasiness. He said not the least; no more than the thought that he had not been, as Lucretius observes.”

Comment (6): Eliza is quoting from a real literary work, James Bosewell’s Life of Johnson. If there is a public domain version of the Life in your target language, you are encouraged to substitute its text for your own translation.

Translation (6): Selon ce que dit Boswell : « Je lui ai demandé si l’idée de disparaitre provoquait en lui un malaise. Il a répondu par la négative. Pas plus que l’idée de n’avoir pas existé, comme le fit observer Lucrèce.

Appât (Français/Version longue page)
Appât (Français/Version slider)

The Adventures of Ashley Madder, slider version

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This particular volume of the Tales of Gnosis College might not have been ideal for sliders as I had to cut some double-width pages to fit them in. Nonetheless the technology seems to, indeed, to be a handy way to read the comic.

For those of you who might want the comic in greater detail, I am pleased to note that it is now available for download as a high-resolution CBZ archive (double-wide pages and all) and as a single PDF document from its dedicated download page at the Internet Archive, where you can also read the whole comic in the Archive’s native text reader.

Apprendre le français X: Appât Page 9

PAGE 9 (Three panels)

Panel 1: Eliza in her wicker chair, being interviewed. She looks like she’s listening intently to to the interviewer’s question.

Unseen interviewer (1): I suppose I can understand your interest in…unusual experiences, but still, this would be your last such experience.

Translation (1): Je peux comprendre votre intérêt pour des… expériences inhabituelles, mais pourtant, ce serait ici la dernière de votre existence.

Eliza (2): That’s right.

Translation (2): C’est vrai.

Panel 2: Eliza stretched out on her wicker chair, one leg extended long, her hand settled between her legs.

Eliza (3): But perhaps instead of a long string of experiences, a string that’s just going to diminish in quality as I get older and older, I might want to have one experience that surpasses them all.

Translation (3): Mais peut-être, au lieu d’une longue série d’expériences, celles-ci s’appauvrissant à mesure que je vieillis, j’aimerais éventuellement en vivre une qui les surpasse toutes.

Panel 3: Close-up on Eliza’s face. Her eyes are closed.

Eliza (4): It sort of gets me hot just thinking about it.

Comment (4): “Gets me hot” is a colloquial expression meaning “causing me to be sexually aroused.”

Translation (4): Cela m’excite d’y penser d’une certaine manière.

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Appât (Français/Version slider)

Grote Opdracht brides in tentacles

Brides they will be, but not of human grooms.

Image presented by agreement between Faustus and Dark Vanessa.

We have here a version of the same commission done by Rafael Suzarte and Lucy Fidelis, this time by another longtime contributor to Erotic Mad Science, Dark Vanessa. Her artistic inspiration of the story interesting fits neatly into an advancing narrative.

Naturally, there is a version of the same fictional news story in Spanish:

La tripulación que operaba un robot sumergible de salvamento cerca de la isla de Motofupo, en el Pacífico sudoccidental, descubrió la semana pasada la placa de identificación y otros escombros que supuestamente pertenecieron a un barco de vela holandés que naufragó hace más de un siglo. A principios de 1886, el Grote Opdracht zarpó de Rotterdam con varios cargamentos y pasajeros hacia las Indias Orientales holandesas. Hizo su última escala en el puerto de Singapur antes de navegar hacia el este con destino a las Islas Molucas. Nunca más se supo del barco. El hecho de que su placa de identificación se encontrase tan lejos de cualquier rumbo plausible que pudiera haber seguido, sugiere que pudo haber sido atrapado en una extraña tormenta tropical y arrastrado a una larga distancia antes de hundirse cerca de Motofupo. La pérdida del Grote Opdracht fue especialmente conmovedora, ya que entre sus pasajeros se encontraban varias jóvenes solteras holandesas y flamencas que viajaban al este para casarse con funcionarios coloniales holandeses que trabajaban en las Molucas. Esta tragedia fue el tema de una popular, aunque triste, balada holandesa de finales del siglo XIX, “Mijn geliefde meisje slaapt in de zuidelijke zee” (“Mi amada niña duerme en el mar del sur”).

Dark Vanessa publishes her work at DeviantArt and you can also support her on Patreon.

As is general with this series, you can right-click and download to get the image in high resolution.

Apprendre le français IX: Appât Page 8

PAGE 8 (Four panels)

Panel 1: Identical panel to Page 4, Panel 2 above, except that one of the young women participating in the ritual of drawing has had a circle drawn around her head. An arrow is additionally drawn pointing to the circle.

CAPTION – PSEUDO-NARRATION (1): In a stroke of amazing luck, researchers were able to find one of the original native women filmed by the Scelleratini brothers and interview her on camera.

Translation (1): Par chance, des chercheurs ont réussi à trouver l’une des femmes autochtones filmées initialement par les frères Scelleratini et à l’interviewer devant une caméra.

Panel 2: The girl from Panel 1, now an ancient, withered old woman of about 95 (“The Ancient.”) She is sitting in a simple chair and is dressed in a plain gray cotton dress.

The Ancient (2): Ketiap sembilan belas tahun, sang dewa akan datang dari kedalaman. Jika kami memberikan pengantin untuknya, ia akan memberkati para penduduk dengan kesehatan yang baik dan ikan yang melimpah.

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATING THE ANCIENT (3): Every nineteen years, the god would come from the depths. If we gave him brides, he would bless our people with good health and abundant fish.

Note (3): If the target language is Bahasa Indonesia, a translation of (3) should be omitted.

Translation (3): Tous les dix-neuf ans, le dieu sortait des profondeurs. En lui donnant des épouses, il bénissait notre peuple pour qu’il vive en bonne santé et obtienne des pêches abondantes.

Panel 3: Same as Panel 2, but a slightly different pose.

Unseen Interviewer (out-of-panel balloon) (4): Apakah ada gadis yang takut terpilih?

The Ancient (5): Tidak ada yang takut. Kami semua ingin dipilih.

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATING THE UNSEEN INTERVIEWER (6): Were any of the girls afraid of being chosen?

Note (6): If the target language is Bahasa Indonesia, a translation of (6) should be omitted.

Translation (6): Aucune des femmes n’avait peur d’être choisie ?

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATING THE ANCIENT (7): No one was afraid. We all wanted to be chosen.

Note (7): If the target language is Bahasa Indonesia, a translation of (7) should be omitted.

Translation (7): Personne n’avait peur. Nous voulions toutes être choisies.

Panel 4: Same as Panel 3, but a slightly different pose.

The Ancient (8): Dewa dari kedalaman akan mencintai pengantinnya dengan cinta yang jauh melebihi cinta yang dapat diberikan pria mana pun kepada seorang wanita. Ini membuatnya layak untuk dilakukan, sekalipun sang dewa akan memakanmu.

SUBTITLE – TRANSLATING THE ANCIENT (9): The god of the depths would love his brides with a love far surpassing that which any man could show a woman. That made it worthwhile, even if he would eat you.

Note (9): If the target language is Bahasa Indonesia, a translation of (9) should be omitted.

Translation (9): Le dieu des profondeurs vouait un amour hors-norme à ses épouses. Cela valait la peine, même s’il souhaitait vous manger.

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Appât (Français/Version slider)