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QuoteReplyTopic: Need help with Shakespeare Posted: 24-Nov-2008 at 22:02
Hi,
On the web the French translation of a Shakespeare quote is going
around quite a bit but I have no idea where it comes from nor what is
the actual English version. It goes as follow:
"Ils ont échoué
parce qu’ils n’avaient
pas commencé par
le rêve.”
"They failed
because they didn't
start by/with
the dream"
It really puzzles me, if someone could help me I'd really appreciate.
On the web the French translation of a Shakespeare quote is going around quite a bit but I have no idea where it comes from nor what is the actual English version. It goes as follow:
"Ils ont échoué parce qu’ils n’avaient pas commencé par le rêve.”
"They failed because they didn't start by/with the dream"
It really puzzles me, if someone could help me I'd really appreciate.
I'm lunching with some theatrical friends tomorrow, I'll see if they have any ideas. I don't recognise the quote offhand myself.
Incidentally 'avaient commencé' there is not conditional but pluperfect, no? Which puristically would mean 'because they had not started' but your version sounds better.
No-one got the reference but we're spreading the word around.
In the meantime it was pointed out to me that Edward Seymour's new translation of Goethe's The Natural Daughter has the line "They fail because they start without a plan" which translates the German original
"... so endet ohne Glück, Was ohne Plan zufällig sie begonnen."
(Act IV Scene IV).
I know Seymour didn't have Shakespeare in mind, because I asked him. Could Goethe have been referring to some Shakespearean source?
An answer to the problem of the Shakespeare quote is suggested in a discussion on a Yahoo France Questions et Réponses forum, where a contributor notes:
'Au fait, il s'avère que l'auteur de la phrase est bien un Shakespeare, mais pas William. Elle est tirée de la Vision d'Elena Silves de Nicholas Shakespeare.'
Alas, I don't know much about N Shakespeare other than that he lived in South America, worked for the Daily Telegraph and has scripted or co-scripted some TV documentaries. The novel The Vision of Elena Silves appeared in 1989 but may now be out of print.
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