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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

(centre de) pulsions

English translation:

forces / energy

Added to glossary by Clare Hogg
Apr 9, 2011 20:50
13 yrs ago
French term

(centre de) pulsions

French to English Art/Literary Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting sculpture
I am translating a rather high-brow text about a sculptor (XXXX) and his wood sculptures (the source text is from the preface of a catalogue containing pictures of his work).

I'm wondering if there is a better way to translate "pulsions" than what I currently have and don't much like: "impulses". This word appears in two different places in the text (see below). In the 2nd instance, it appears in the phrase "centre de pulsions". "Centres of impulse" sounds very odd to me.

Any ideas MUCH APPRECIATED, THANK YOU!!!!!

...la sculpture de XXXX est en quelque sorte beaucoup plus communautaire que la théorisation plastique de n'importe quel clan artistique. Elle est d'abord concernée par les **pulsions** de la matière, le végétal, la nature, l'émotion, les gens qu'il aime et leur légende d'ailleurs plus poétique que vraiment magique ; et non par un monde urbain dominé par une productivité rationalisée, le prestige de l'insensibilité et la peur de l'imprévisible...

"Et telle perfection dans la taille du matériau, dans le choix des centres d'attraction et de **pulsion**, dans le poli des belles faces courbes, nous devrions chercher beaucoup aujourd'hui pour lui trouver des rivales."
Proposed translations (English)
3 (locus of the) forces within the material
4 +1 dynamic focus/vital forces
3 dynamics / motivation
3 urge, drive

Discussion

David Vaughn Apr 10, 2011:
phony I don't have anything against phony - but it has to be done well. ;-))
Clare Hogg (asker) Apr 10, 2011:
Interesting discussion!! Thanks for all your interest and help on a sunday!! David, I think your last comment hits the nail on the head (the "phony" part!). No wonder it´s taken me a whole weekend to proofread and refine this 2,000 word text!!! Each new sentence is like a new mountain to climb!! I agree that Ghits aren´t too helpful here. Thanks to Helen and BD Finch too for all your brillian ideas! Much appreciated!!!!
David Vaughn Apr 10, 2011:
google Google's count of Ghits are notoriously fake. If yo go to the final page, you'll find there are only 516 hits, not 93,000. Results will also differ depending on what flavor of google you use. But yes, any set of opposites is common, see "hot and cold". But that has nothing to do with pulsion. Google will also tell you that the word "pulsion" is 4 times as common in French as "répulsion". When a word is common, we don't go looking for a play on words based on another word. That said, I would believe anything of the author's text, which seems to be filled with forced phony word play.
Helen Shiner Apr 10, 2011:
Type of text One thing you can say about this text - in as far as we have seen it in the excerpts given by the Asker - is that it does not adopt standard ways of saying things. Ghits are really irrelevant here.
Melissa McMahon Apr 10, 2011:
Not by itself, no... But with attraction, yes. Action by itself doesn't suggest reaction, but it's like if someone wrote "action and refraction" or "action and proaction", they'd be implicitly playing on the pair of "action and reaction". Ghits for "d'attraction et de pulsion" - 2, including this use. For "d'attraction et de répulsion", 93,400.
Helen Shiner Apr 10, 2011:
With BD Finch and D Vaughan in this regard. I don't think it is a typo and consider it perfectly acceptable and frequently used as given by the Asker.
David Vaughn Apr 10, 2011:
pulsion In fact attraction is often considered a kind of pulsion.
David Vaughn Apr 10, 2011:
pulsion I have to agree with BD Finch here. "Pulsion" is such a common word, no reason it would suggest répulsion. Sort of like saying "action" would suggest "reaction".
Melissa McMahon Apr 10, 2011:
@BD - French same as English in this respect Attraction and repulsion is as much a classic "pair" in French as in English - cf. http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/répulsion

B D Finch Apr 10, 2011:
@Melissa - Not a typo "Pulsion" is a commonly used word in French and is used in psychology (EN: drive), but generally as motive force. Yes it is the same word that is at the root of repulsion, but just because the stem has not been retained as a word in its own right in English doesn't mean that the same is the case for French. So, it doesn't follow that a French reader would necessarily think of "repulsion" when "pulsion" is paired with "attraction".
Melissa McMahon Apr 10, 2011:
Second instance - typo or play on words Hi Clare, "attraction" is often paired with "repulsion". If "centres d'attraction et de pulsion", is not a typo, then I think it is a play on words, which makes your job all the harder there if you want to keep the reference to REpulsion - "attraction and pulsation"?

Proposed translations

1 hr
Selected

(locus of the) forces within the material

A suggestion. Rather than speak of impulses or urges or impetus, all of which are anthropomorphic, how about using force(s)? The first instance could be 'forces inherent' within the material. If you want to translate it as forces exuding from the material, how about 'forces communicated by' ... or 'forces expressed by'?

I don't have the tenor of the text obviously from just this small passage, but maybe this helps.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 days (2011-04-16 18:31:34 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Thanks, Claire
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks for all your help with this text here and elsewhere, Helen. I actually went for your translation "energy" included in your comment to BD Finch´s answer."
1 hr

dynamics / motivation

Two occurrences of a single term, but the context is slightly different in each case, so I propose two terms:

"dynamics of matter [...]" for "les pulsions de la matière [...]"

"motivation" for "centres de pulsion"
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+1
2 hrs

dynamic focus/vital forces

Explanation:
http://www.henry-moore.org/docs/walter_crane_and_hermann_obr... Waenerberg has unpacked the connections between Obrist and the art historian Bernard Berenson, who he knew whilst living in Florence from 1892-4 and their shared fascination with the ‘life of line’ in the creation of movement. Obrist and Crane’s shared vocabulary of inward
and outward, internal and external vital forces, of the natural and the spiritual, of the botanical structure and the mysteries of nature has, however, been overlooked. "
http://www.henry-moore.org/docs/walter_crane_and_hermann_obr...

""Anne Kampschulte´s artwork is marked by a dynamic focus, the sculptor releases the energy from deep within the compacted material, revealing its ..."
www.annekampschulte.com/esculturas_detail.php?lang=en...4

"In time, the atrium space will also house floor level eateries and cafes, but currently the stacked red fibreglass column provides a dynamic focus through which the space itself can find its form.

'Hello Friends' signals a return to narrative fictions within public art practice. Although taking as a starting point Brancusi's Endless Column, it completely subverts the main tenant of Modernism, the one of purity of form as a consequence of the elimination of literary narrative. "
http://www.axisweb.org/pbFull.aspx?SID=18184
Peer comment(s):
agree Melissa McMahon : vital forces works for me :-)
9 hrs
Thanks Melissa.
neutral Helen Shiner : The vital forces mentioned in your first quote refer to those in natural rather than in a material. This is the language of Vitalism and thus specific to its period. For me focus doesn't work either, though energy does.
11 hrs
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7 hrs

urge, drive

For me this is referring to traditional psychology, usually rendered as urges or drives, as in Freud for example. I don't particularly like the sound and ambiguity of these works in this context, but don't know how far you can get away from them without betraying the text. As we have seen elsewhere in this text, the author enjoys forced metaphors and the personification of processes and material.
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