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Kevin comments on The Sword of Good: I need some help to translate it - Less Wrong Discussion

10 Post author: loup-vaillant 30 November 2011 01:41PM

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Comment author: loup-vaillant 30 November 2011 04:17:33PM *  4 points [-]

Oh yes, those are the kind of words I was looking for. Parité seems especially suitable as an explanation for how Good and Evil, somehow should be equally represented (like men and women in our democracies). Symétrie however sounds even more formal, and I like it.

Anyway, I think they both are much better that what I originally thought of (Stabilité).

@ETA2: Yes, I thought it was indeed too conventional, so I have opted for the captain-obvious emphatic "Noirceur" for now. "Seigneur du Sombre" sounds rather good, but somehow the grammatical "mistake" (using an adjective (Sombre/Dark) instead of a name (Noirceur/Darkness)) works less well in French than it does in English. But that may be because I'm not a native English speaker. Does "Lord of Dark" sounds disturbingly grammatically incorrect to native English speakers?

As for what Eliezer would have written… ouch, that's a hell of a challenge. But I get the idea. Originally, I thought of trying to give to my French readers the same impressions Eliezer gave me. I hope that will be a good enough proxy.

Hofastadter's book looks very interesting, thanks.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 30 November 2011 05:18:16PM *  8 points [-]

Does "Lord of Dark" sounds disturbingly grammatically incorrect to native English speakers?

"Lord of Darkness" would be the standard epithet in extruded fantasy product. But this piece is a parody of that genre, and "Lord of Dark" matches "Sword of Good" in its deliberately plonking manner (i.e. what you called "captain-obvious"). It draws attention to its own banality, which is the point.

Comment author: [deleted] 30 November 2011 04:46:33PM 1 point [-]

Does "Lord of Dark" sounds disturbingly grammatically incorrect to native English speakers?

Not particularly so. Dark is also a noun in English; "I was sitting in the dark."

Comment author: DanielLC 01 December 2011 01:59:31AM 2 points [-]

But then it would have to be "Lord of the Dark". "I was sitting in dark" doesn't make sense.

Comment author: [deleted] 01 December 2011 02:33:47AM *  0 points [-]

The issue of whether or not "dark" needs an article differs between dialects. A swift Googling (e.g., "I was in dark") brings up several examples.

Comment author: loup-vaillant 30 November 2011 04:48:42PM 1 point [-]

But of course. Noted, thanks.

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 30 November 2011 05:27:11PM 0 points [-]

but somehow the grammatical "mistake" (using an adjective (Sombre/Dark) instead of a name (Noirceur/Darkness)) works less well in French than it does in English

"Dark" can be used as a noun in English, it's not strictly an adjective - e.g. "I'm in the dark". "I looked into the dark".