Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
agencements du regard
English translation:
tricks of perspective
Added to glossary by
Miranda Joubioux (X)
May 15, 2012 15:02
12 yrs ago
French term
Miranda Joubioux (X)
agencements du regard
French to English
Other
Poetry & Literature
Target=uk
article for architecture magazine
The author speaks of his daydreaming as a student while listening to his lecturers. In this instance the lecturer is a philosopher.
To be blunt it is difficult to explain the context which wanders in and out of his daydreaming.
The text is difficult to translate. He talks of a woman on the radio who asks a professor of quantum mechanics 'Can we really understand quantum mechanics?' He answers 'No, but you get used to it'
On s’habitue, comme on s’habitue aux nuages, à la philosophie, aux agencements du regard, à la surprise.
My mind has gone into complete turmoil, with his dreams and his clouds. Any help would be appreciated.
I've put this in Literature & Poetry, because the text is written in a fairly poetic style.
If that doesn't come up trumps, I'll change it to General.
article for architecture magazine
The author speaks of his daydreaming as a student while listening to his lecturers. In this instance the lecturer is a philosopher.
To be blunt it is difficult to explain the context which wanders in and out of his daydreaming.
The text is difficult to translate. He talks of a woman on the radio who asks a professor of quantum mechanics 'Can we really understand quantum mechanics?' He answers 'No, but you get used to it'
On s’habitue, comme on s’habitue aux nuages, à la philosophie, aux agencements du regard, à la surprise.
My mind has gone into complete turmoil, with his dreams and his clouds. Any help would be appreciated.
I've put this in Literature & Poetry, because the text is written in a fairly poetic style.
If that doesn't come up trumps, I'll change it to General.
Proposed translations
(English)
References
| Deleuze / Guattari + agencements |
Just Opera
|
Proposed translations
6 mins
Paul Hirsh
France
France
Native in English
Specializes in field
France
The Human Translator
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, Russian to English, Spanish to English, and 2 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
44
Selected
tricks of perspective
first thing that came to mind
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "This was not an easy one, and the number of entries here just goes to show how difficult it is to get across the idea. I feel in the context of an article by an architect that 'perspective' is the right word. However, there is nothing to indicate shifting/changing perspectives. I feel that 'tricks' does actually get the meaning across, whereas 'different' is not quite sufficient IMO. The nature of the article, makes the choice of word fairly important. Thank you to everyone who participated in this one. As Yoland says, 'regard' is one of those tricky words!"
+3
12 mins
Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Specializes in field
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
80
different viewpoints
different ways of looking at things
But note the low CR! Hopefully this is an intelligent/educated (?) guess! It at least is in keeping with all that philosophising
But note the low CR! Hopefully this is an intelligent/educated (?) guess! It at least is in keeping with all that philosophising
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Yolanda Broad
: "regard" is such a tricky term to translate, isn't it?
57 mins
|
|
many thanks - yes it certainly can be!
|
|
| agree |
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
: Sorry, just noticed yours Carol. I think "different points of view" reads more naturally in English though. I feel the need for this to be longer and more waffly, as English wafllers are wont to, er, well, waffle! ;-) The French lingers, the English can!
1 hr
|
|
Many thanks Nikki! Points of view, viewpoints, perspectives, stances... the list of synonyms goes on. I like "points of view", but not sure that the English are generally more waffly/fluffy than the French though...!
|
|
| agree |
Catherine Gilsenan
22 hrs
|
|
many thanks Catherine!
|
+1
38 mins
Lara Barnett
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Works in field
United Kingdom
www.lingocraft.co.uk
Native in: English (Variants: British, Scottish, Irish, Singaporean, UK, South African)
Works in: French to English, Italian to English, Romanian to English, and 2 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
new settings/arrangements
I am aware that the word "new" is not present here, but I think in the context this is implied as each object the author talks about "getting used to" leads from the basic "clouds" through to more abstract ideas, through to "surprise".
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Jason Holt (X)
: Actually I like this better than my own.
1 min
|
|
Thank you.
|
39 mins
Arrangement of thought or arrangement of one's thought
Just considering that the context is how one gets used to seeing certain things, specially related to philosophy: they way a philosopher thinks is the way he in some sense views the world or it's arargement or organization. For "Arrangement", a more straightforward interpretation is needed. For "du regard", I like perspective or viewpoint but I think you could translate it as "thought" as this seems to express the same idea to me. So if translated literally, maybe the sentence could read something like "One becomes accustomed to, as one becomes accustomed to the clouds, to philopshy, to the arrangement of thought, to the surprise.". I'm pretty new here so I can't say for 100% certainity but from what I understand, this seems like a plausible translation.
1 hr
Timothy Rake
United States
United States
Native in English
Specializes in field
United States
My business is translating your business
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, English to French
Related KudoZ points
:
4
one's window on the world
this may be a stretch, but I think more "poetic." When I think of "one's window on the world" I am thinking: from what perspective we choose to look (LE REGARD) at the world, which also speaks to how we organize that world (L'ARRANGEMENT).
1 hr
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Native in English
Psychologist, Court-certified legal
Native in: English
Works in: French to English
Related KudoZ points
:
16
different ways of looking at things
I know it seems longer and yes, it is longer. As it is a waflly arty f***y piece, it may meander in there quite comfortably.
1 hr
changes of perspective
another suggestion - I realise this uses a word chosen by Paul, but I wonder if there is not an "architectural" and emotional slant to the phrase.... and this phrase, I hope, can be taken intellectually (one changes one's way of looking at things) and 'architecturally' (the architect may seek to suggest different perspectives of his work)
1 hr
Wolf Draeger
South Africa
South Africa
Native in English
Specializes in field
South Africa
Related KudoZ points
:
32
optical illusions
This is a bit of a long shot, but it might fit with the speaker/dreamer being an architect...?
I see a gentle irony in the speaker's comments, in which he laments the way in which we get used to phenomena/experiences which initially captured our attention and stoked our imagination; now, they've become ordinary and we take them for granted. Look at a couple of optical illusions, and you start to think you've seen them all.
The article doesn't mention mind-altering substances of any kind, does it :-) ?
I see a gentle irony in the speaker's comments, in which he laments the way in which we get used to phenomena/experiences which initially captured our attention and stoked our imagination; now, they've become ordinary and we take them for granted. Look at a couple of optical illusions, and you start to think you've seen them all.
The article doesn't mention mind-altering substances of any kind, does it :-) ?
5 hrs
Laurette Tassin
France
France
Native in French
&
English
France
Traduction / Formation
Native in: English (Variants: British, Australian, New Zealand, US, French) 
, French (Variants: Standard-France, African, Swiss, Belgian)
Works in: French to English, English to French
shifting perspectives
yet another perspective
5 hrs
Salih YILDIRIM
United States
United States
Works in field
United States
Meticulous, scrupulous, curious work!
Native in: Turkish (Variant: Standard-İstanbul )
Works in: Turkish to English, English to Turkish, French to Turkish, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
Illimunation systems
Regular human behaviour when thinking of something comprehensively to perceive it thoroughly.
Reference comments
5 hrs
Reference:
Deleuze / Guattari + agencements
I think this fits with the text , the idea of a jumble that can produce many effects (like in quantum physics / daydream). Core idea of these philosophers.
For Deleuze / Guattari 'agencements' = assemblage (sometime also translated as Rhizome):
An assemblage is any number of "things" or pieces of "things" gathered into a single context. An assemblage can bring about any number of "effects"—aesthetic, machinic, productive, destructive, consumptive, informatic, etc. Deleuze and Guattari's discussion of the book provides a number of insights into this loosely defined term:
In a book, as in all things, there are lines of articulation or segmentarity, strata and territories; but also lines of flight, movements of deterritorialization and destratification. Comparative rates of flow on these lines produce phenomena of relative slowness and viscosity, or, on the contrary, of acceleration and rupture. All this, lines and measurable speeds constitutes an assemblage. A book is an assemblage of this kind, and as such is unattributable. It is a multiplicity—but we don't know yet what the multiple entails when it is no longer attributed, that is, after it has been elevated to the status of the substantive. On side of a machinic assemblage faces the strata, which doubtless make it a kind of organism, or signifying totality, or determination attributable to a subject; it also has a side facing a body without organs, which is continually dismantling the organism, causing asignifying particles or pure intensities or circulate, and attributing to itself subjects what it leaves with nothing more than a name as the trace of an intensity... Literature is an assemblage. It has nothing to do with ideology. There is no ideology and never has been. (3-4)
The book, as described above, is a jumbling together of discrete parts or pieces that is capable of producing any number effects, rather than a tightly organized and coherent whole producing one dominant reading.
The beauty of the assemblage is that, since it lacks organization, it can draw into its body any number of disparate elements. The book itself can be an assemblage, but its status as an assemblage does not prevent it from containing assemblages within itself or entering into new assemblages with readers, libraries, bonfires, bookstores, etc. "
For Deleuze / Guattari 'agencements' = assemblage (sometime also translated as Rhizome):
An assemblage is any number of "things" or pieces of "things" gathered into a single context. An assemblage can bring about any number of "effects"—aesthetic, machinic, productive, destructive, consumptive, informatic, etc. Deleuze and Guattari's discussion of the book provides a number of insights into this loosely defined term:
In a book, as in all things, there are lines of articulation or segmentarity, strata and territories; but also lines of flight, movements of deterritorialization and destratification. Comparative rates of flow on these lines produce phenomena of relative slowness and viscosity, or, on the contrary, of acceleration and rupture. All this, lines and measurable speeds constitutes an assemblage. A book is an assemblage of this kind, and as such is unattributable. It is a multiplicity—but we don't know yet what the multiple entails when it is no longer attributed, that is, after it has been elevated to the status of the substantive. On side of a machinic assemblage faces the strata, which doubtless make it a kind of organism, or signifying totality, or determination attributable to a subject; it also has a side facing a body without organs, which is continually dismantling the organism, causing asignifying particles or pure intensities or circulate, and attributing to itself subjects what it leaves with nothing more than a name as the trace of an intensity... Literature is an assemblage. It has nothing to do with ideology. There is no ideology and never has been. (3-4)
The book, as described above, is a jumbling together of discrete parts or pieces that is capable of producing any number effects, rather than a tightly organized and coherent whole producing one dominant reading.
The beauty of the assemblage is that, since it lacks organization, it can draw into its body any number of disparate elements. The book itself can be an assemblage, but its status as an assemblage does not prevent it from containing assemblages within itself or entering into new assemblages with readers, libraries, bonfires, bookstores, etc. "
Note from asker:
| Many thanks for that reference. Interesting! I don't think the word fits here though, but I will definitely find a use for it in the future! |
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