Introduction
The passage is from the essay De l'expérience by Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) in which he explores the peculiarities of his own body, and of his own day-to-day life, as a way of trying to explore his own specific uniqueness as an individual, his difference from everyone else.
It is the same length as passages used in Part IA translation papers.
The translation of the passage was done by Donald Frame and published in 1957. As always, it is not definitive, but it will give you a text with which to compare and judge your own translation.
For a good introduction to the author, click here.
To find out more about Middle French.
Some Instructions
- The passage for translation includes highlighted words: click on a highlighted word or phrase to see more information about it in the right-hand column.
- In the CALL Facility and elsewhere via the PWF, you can use the Oxford Hachette Dictionary (Go to Start > PWF Programs > MML > French > Oxford Hachette Dictionary > Superlex).
- Type up your translation with a separate program alongside your web browser. Use a word processor or text editor; on a CALL Facility PC WordPad (Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > WordPad) is reccomended.
- You can save your work on a floppy disk or send yourself (or your tutor) a copy of your translation by copying and pasting it into an email message. To simplify transmission, save your file as plain text rather than a word processor document: under Save As go for plain text. You may even wish to type your translation directly into an email message.