Translation into English of an expression
I read an expression in French which says "Qui visite un pays en ignorant sa langue n'a rien visité" and I was wondering how it could be translated into English.
In Spanish I would translate as "Quien visita un país y desconoce la lengua, no ha visitado nada"... my attempt in English is "Whoever visits a country, but doesn't speak the language, has visited nothing" .... what would you suggest?
Gracias
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Answers · 6
3
You could even make it more personal and use the English generic 'you':
"If you visit a country without learning its language, then you haven't really visited it."
2
Your translation is excellent as is!
An alternative translation that recreates the feel of the original French is:
"He who visits a country without knowing its language has visited nothing (at all)."
PS "he who visits…" obviously has a "sexist" bent to it, since it uses a masculine pronoun. This was the way things were in the old days when the masculine form was the default, as in the Star Trek slogan "to boldly go where no MAN has gone before." Your translation skips this gender controversy and is perfect as is. "He who …", however, does give the sentence an older, literary feel… :)
1
I cannot read french, but based on your Spanish translation, I'm getting "Those who visit a country yet cannot speak the tongue, have not visited (or experienced) anything at all."
I put experienced in parenthesis because, while it's not the direct translation, I think it sounds better! Hope that helps :D
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