Chalet in the Sky
Page 30
5 This is actually calculatedly-botched “trading French” rather than a compound of the universal languages cited above; as the addressee is supposed to find it incomprehensible, there seems little point in “translating” it into pidgin English.
6 The term péripatéticiens [peripatetics] has a double-meaning in France; although derived from the “peripatetic” school of Greek philosophy, the word is also used to refer to street-walkers of a more vulgar sort. Obviously, Gustave is applying the former meaning to his teachers, and Robida would not expect his readers to think otherwise, although he would be well aware that they would notice the double entendre.
7 I have translated Robida’s charrues automobiles with literal clumsiness rather than employing the word “tractor” for the automotive component, because he could certainly have employed the word tracteur if he had wanted to, assuming that he wrote the story not far in advance of its publication in 1917, but chose not to do so.
8 What the French mean by an “embrace,” in this context, is the gesture of kissing someone on both cheeks, which has no similarly economical descriptive term in English. It is, therefore, necessary for the reader to imagine the various uncles blowing multiple kisses over the telephonoscope, addressed to poor Valérie’s cheeks.
9 Two of the multiple meanings if the French cours are in play here; it can refer to a racecourse as well as a course of lessons.
10 In order to keep these lines to the requisite 20 syllables I have had to abridge them slightly, English being slightly less economical than French in that respect.
11 I have altered the word-meanings in this parodic verse slightly, though not its spirit or substance, in order to conserve the rhyme scheme, dutifully reproducing the original’s deliberate inexactitude (Labrouscade rhymes en garde with regarde and cher, so “beware” and “dear” will surely do just as well).
12 Sabir is a common trade language employed in North-Africa and the Middle-East, but not in the Congo; the word is also used more generally in France to mean jargon tending towards gibberish. The offending piece, if the quoted section is typical, is actually written in polluted French strangely similar to the improvised dialect with which Gustave originally greeted Koufra. As before, I can see no point in translating it into bad English. (It is, of course, the beginning of a synopsis of the plot of the Iliad.)
13 The pun is recognizable in English, even though the French vilain has a broader range of reference than the English “villain,” and all that English has by way of a feminine variant corresponding to the French vilaine is the cumbersome and unnecessary “villainess.”
14 Transalpine tunnels were among the highest-profile engineering projects of the late 19th century. The Mont Cenis railway tunnel was the first to be completed in 1871, followed by the Gotthard tunnel in 1882 and the Simplon tunnel in 1906. The second-named was the most controversial because 200 men died in an accident during the construction (it was also the first to use compressed air to propel trains, perhaps providing the inspiration for Robida’s tubes).
15 Although there does not seem to be a French novel entitled Les Cambrioleurs aériens, there is an English novel called The Aerial Burglars (by James Blyth), which had been published in 1906 some years before Robida wrote this piece. It is doubtful that Robida knew of its existence, though, and its plot is markedly different from the one described by Colette.
16 In fact, one of the staple story-devices of the school story was the fabrication and use of mechanical means of reproducing “lines,” usually involving multiple pens. Robida was obviously aware of the fact, and is dutifully updating the motif.
17 Soule, a sport popular in France under the ancien régime, is presumed to be the ancestor of all kinds of modern football; its principal focus was on the scrum rather than kicking the ball and there was no limit to the number of players on either side, as is the case with the version of “Rugby football” featured in Tom Brown’s Schooldays and the infamous “Eton Wall Game,” as well as the kind of football vaguely described here. English public schools were not the only inheritors of the tradition, however; the choule played in Normandy and Picardy remained popular long after the popularization of the more rule-bound versions of the game.
18 A Latin dictionary, as compiled by Louis Quicherat (1779-1884).
19 Colette actually says flûte, which has a far greater range of possible meanings than its English equivalent, thanks to which she might also be insulting Labrouscade by referring to his stature (likening him to a thin loaf of bread) and telling him to hop it.
20 Not so much a drinking song as a crudely repetitive three-syllable chant. A lampion is a Chinese lantern, but the verb lamper means to gulp down a drink.
21 Saint Charlemagne was—and is—the patron saint of French schoolchildren; at the time when Robida was writing many French schools celebrated the saint’s day (January 28, the anniversary of Charlemagne’s death) with special dinners at which distinguished pupils were honored.
22 Apart from substituting the modern N for Az to signify nitrogen, I have rendered these formulas exactly as Robida does, although the subsequent sophistication of chemistry and education have undermined his joke somewhat. His punch-line reflects the fact that, in the early days of organic chemistry, long before appellation contrôlée, bad French wines—including poor “champagne”—were sometimes given considerable chemical assistance in an attempt to render them drinkable; alkalis were often used to neutralize excess acid, although washing soda was a more likely additive than caustic potash. If anything similar happened today (perish the thought!), we can be reasonably sure that it would only be done to wine intended for export.
23 This pun does not translate, alas. A hareng saur is a “red herring” in both the literal and metaphorical senses. Readers of The Adventures of Saturnin Farandoul will remember the crucial role played by herring in that narrative.
24 “Tout est perdu fors l’honneur” is what François I is reputed to have said in 1525 after losing the battle of Pavie and being taken prisoner by the Spaniards.
25 An aul (Robida spells it aoul) is a kind of fortified village found in the Caucasus.
26 The text subsequently places Astra in the Pacific Ocean, but that must have been a change of mind, since there is a supplementary reference here to it being south of the Caucasian Archipelago. Given the double reference, I thought it best to leave the contradiction in place rather than changing it for the sake of consistency.
27 Limousin is the dialect of the region around Limoges.
28 La Vésinet is a commune in the suburbs of Paris.
29 Jean-Henri Latude (1725-1805) was a con man who tried unsuccessfully to put one over on Madame de Pompadour, the king’s mistress, and was imprisoned in the Bastille in 1749. After being transferred to Vincennes, he escaped in 1750 but was soon recaptured. He escaped again, this time from the Bastille, in 1756, and also escaped a second time from Vincennes in 1765, but kept getting caught, until he was eventually released in 1784. His escapes made him something of a folk hero, and called attention to the length of his imprisonment for an exceedingly trivial offense—which might have played some part in the inspiration of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
30 Robida has Californie (California) but that has to be a misprint.
31 Chasselas is a variety of grape used in making desert wines. It is possible that the pill in question is made directly from the grape, but it is more likely that Robida is mischievously classifying a dessert wine as food rather than drink, and that the citation is continuing his tongue-in-cheek celebration of the effects of alcohol.
32 This pun does not translate, although I have improvised a half-hearted compromise; the French mouillage means both “anchorage” and “soaking.”
33 This standard cookbook was actually a product of the 19th century; many of its recipes were plundered by Mrs. Beeton for her celebrated Book of Household Management.
FRENCH SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY COLLECTION
Henri Allorge. The Great Ca
taclysm
G.-J. Arnaud. The Ice Company
Charles Asselineau. The Double Life
Richard Bessière. The Gardens of the Apocalypse
Albert Bleunard. Ever Smaller
Félix Bodin. The Novel of the Future
Alphonse Brown. City of Glass
Félicien Champsaur. The Human Arrow
Didier de Chousy. Ignis
Captain Danrit. Undersea Odyssey
C. I. Defontenay. Star (Psi Cassiopeia)
Charles Derennes. The People of the Pole
Georges T. Dodds. The Missing Link and Other Tales of Ape-Men
Alfred Driou. The Adventures of a Parisian Aeronaut
J.-C. Dunyach. The Night Orchid; The Thieves of Silence
Henri Duvernois. The Man Who Found Himself
Achille Eyraud. Voyage to Venus
Henri Falk. The Age of Lead
Charles de Fieux. Lamékis
Arnould Galopin. Doctor Omega
Edmond Haraucourt. Illusions of Immortality
Nathalie Henneberg. The Green Gods
Michel Jeury. Chronolysis
Gustave Kahn. The Tale of Gold and Silence
Gérard Klein. The Mote in Time’s Eye
André Laurie. Spiridon
Gabriel de Lautrec. The Vengeance of the Oval Portrait
Georges Le Faure & Henri de Graffigny. The Extraordinary Adventures of a Russian Scientist Across the Solar System (2 vols.)
Gustave Le Rouge. The Vampires of Mars; The Dominion of the World (4 vols)
Jules Lermina. Mysteryville; Panic in Paris; The Secret of Zippelius; To-Ho and the Gold Destroyers
José Moselli. Illa’s End
John-Antoine Nau. Enemy Force
Henri de Parville. An Inhabitant of the Planet Mars
Gaston de Pawlowski. Journey to the Land of the Fourth Dimension
Georges Pellerin. The World in 2000 Years
Henri de Régnier. A Surfeit of Mirrors
Maurice Renard. The Blue Peril; Doctor Lerne; The Doctored Man; A Man Among the Microbes; The Master of Light
Jean Richepin. The Wing
Albert Robida. The Clock of the Centuries; Chalet in the Sky
J.-H. Rosny Aîné. The Givreuse Enigma; The Mysterious Force; The Navigators of Space; Vamireh; The World of the Variants; The Young Vampire
Marcel Rouff. Journey to the Inverted World
Han Ryner. The Superhumans
Brian Stableford (anthologist) The Germans on Venus; News from the Moon; The Supreme Progress; The World Above the World; Nemoville
Jacques Spitz. The Eye of Purgatory
Kurt Steiner. Ortog
Eugène Thébault. Radio-Terror
C.-F. Tiphaigne de La Roche. Amilec
Théo Varlet. The Xenobiotic Invasion (w/Octave Joncquel). The Martian Epic; (w/André Blandin) Timeslip Troopers
Paul Vibert. The Mysterious Fluid
English adaptation and introduction Copyright 2011 by Brian Stableford.
Cover illustration Copyright 2011 by Eric Lorin.
Visit our website at www.blackcoatpress.com
ISBN 978-1-935558-87-3. First Printing. March 2011. Published by Black Coat Press, an imprint of Hollywood Comics.com, LLC, P.O. Box 17270, Encino, CA 91416. All rights reserved. Except for review purposes, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The stories and characters depicted in this novel are entirely fictional. Printed in the United States of America.