{"id":47381,"date":"2023-10-22T07:47:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-22T05:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/?p=47381"},"modified":"2023-10-22T17:00:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-22T15:00:09","slug":"do-you-shakespeake-critique-aisee-n26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/?p=47381","title":{"rendered":"Understatement and the english soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ce texte a \u00e9t\u00e9 publi\u00e9 pr\u00e9c\u00e9demment il y a neuf ans.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dans un article pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent consacr\u00e9 \u00e0 P.G. Wodehouse, j\u2019avais \u00e9voqu\u00e9 le caract\u00e8re intraduisible de ce mot si britannique d\u2019understatement<\/em>. Certains anglophones scolaires pourront vous dire que understatement<\/em> pourrait tr\u00e8s bien se traduire par litote<\/em> ou par euph\u00e9misme<\/em>. H\u00e9 bien, ce n\u2019est pas mon avis et je le prouve.<\/p>\n

Commen\u00e7ons par George Mikes, auteur anglais d\u2019origine hongroise qui, vers la fin des ann\u00e9es 40, a trait\u00e9 de l\u2019impossibilit\u00e9 pour un non-anglais (un alien) \u00e0 devenir anglais dans un petit opuscule \u00e0 l\u2019humour tr\u00e8s britannique,\u00a0\u00bbHow to be an alien\u00a0\u00bb. Voici l\u2019une des raisons de cette impossibilit\u00e9: \u00a0\u00ab\u00a0The English have no soul ; they have the understatement instead<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00bb
\n(Je vais me permettre ici une incidente pour souligner que le vocable d’alien que les Grands Bretons utilisent volontiers pour nous d\u00e9signer, nous les \u00e9trangers, fait in\u00e9vitablement penser, depuis une trentaine d’ann\u00e9es, \u00e0 un \u00eatre verd\u00e2tre, gluant et agressif, mais par dessus tout mal \u00e9lev\u00e9 qui met en \u00e9vidence le peu d’estime<\/em><\/p>\n

dans laquelle nous sommes tenus par les autochtones d’au del\u00e0 du Britrish channel<\/em>.)
\nOn peut poursuivre avec un exemple un peu plus ancien (1871), celui du journaliste Stanley qui, apr\u00e8s une exp\u00e9dition de plus de 1000 kilom\u00e8tres \u00e0 la recherche du Dr. Linvingstone \u00e0 travers la for\u00eat africaine, l’apostrophe au moment o\u00f9 il le retrouve avec un\u00a0tr\u00e8s formel\u00a0\u00ab\u00a0Dr. Linvingstone, I presume?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00bb comme il l’eut fait \u00e0 l’angle de Haymarket et de Jermyn Street.<\/p>\n

L’understatement<\/em> a travers\u00e9 tr\u00e8s t\u00f4t l’Atlantique pour s’installer aux U.S.A. o\u00f9 il se porte bien, je vous remercie. Pour preuve de cette bonne sant\u00e9, le jour o\u00f9 les journaux annonc\u00e8rent \u00e0 tort la mort de Mark Twain, il leur envoya ce t\u00e9l\u00e9gramme: \u00ab\u00a0Nouvelle de ma mort fortement exag\u00e9r\u00e9e<\/em><\/strong>\u00ab\u00a0.<\/p>\n

En 1970, la capsule Apollo 13, en route vers la Lune, connut une explosion de l’un de ses r\u00e9servoirs d’oxyg\u00e8ne. Le commandant de la mission \u00e9mit alors \u00e0 l’attention de la base le laconique et c\u00e9l\u00e8bre message suivant : \u00ab\u00a0Houston, we have a problem<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n

Le petit texte ci-dessous, en relation avec les menaces terroristes qui pesaient encore r\u00e9cemment sur Londres, a \u00e9t\u00e9 attribu\u00e9 \u00e0 John Cleese, membre fondateur des Monty Pythons, ces vestales de l\u2019understatement:<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Les Anglais ont r\u00e9agi aux r\u00e9centes menaces terroristes en \u00e9levant leur niveau de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 de \u00ab\u00a0vex\u00e9\u00a0\u00bb \u00e0 \u00ab\u00a0\u00e9nerv\u00e9\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0; cependant, ces niveaux pourraient bient\u00f4t encore augmenter et passer \u00e0 \u00ab\u00a0irrit\u00e9\u00a0\u00bb ou m\u00eame \u00e0 \u00ab\u00a0plut\u00f4t f\u00e2ch\u00e9\u00a0\u00bb. Les britanniques n’ont plus atteint le niveau \u00ab\u00a0plut\u00f4t f\u00e2ch\u00e9\u00a0\u00bb depuis le Blitz de 1940, quand les approvisionnements en th\u00e9 vinrent presque \u00e0 manquer. Les terroristes ont \u00e9t\u00e9 requalifi\u00e9s de \u00ab\u00a0assommants\u00a0\u00bb \u00e0 \u00ab\u00a0sacr\u00e9ment ennuyeux\u00a0\u00bb. Le qualificatif de \u00ab\u00a0sacr\u00e9ment ennuyeux\u00a0\u00bb avait \u00e9t\u00e9 donn\u00e9 pour la derni\u00e8re fois en 1588 aux vaisseaux de l\u2019Invincible Armada espagnole.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(1)\u00bb<\/p>\n

Vous voyez bien maintenant que litote<\/em> ou euph\u00e9misme<\/em>\u00a0, \u00e7a ne peut pas coller.<\/p>\n

Note 1-Les puristes trouveront ci-dessous le texte anglophone (et francophobe)\u00a0complet de cet int\u00e9ressant commentaire sur les niveaux d\u2019alerte et de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 dans diff\u00e9rents pays:<\/em><\/p>\n

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from \u00ab\u00a0Miffed\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0Peeved.\u00a0\u00bb
\nSoon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to \u00ab\u00a0Irritated\u00a0\u00bb or even \u00ab\u00a0A Bit Cross.\u00a0\u00bb The English have not been \u00ab\u00a0A Bit Cross\u00a0\u00bb since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from \u00ab\u00a0Tiresome\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0A Bloody Nuisance.\u00a0\u00bb The last time the British issued a \u00ab\u00a0Bloody Nuisance\u00a0\u00bb warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
\nThe Scots have raised their threat level from \u00ab\u00a0Pissed Off\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0Let’s get the Bastards.\u00a0\u00bb They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
\nThe French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from \u00ab\u00a0Run\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0Hide.\u00a0\u00bb The only two higher levels in France are \u00ab\u00a0Collaborate\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Surrender.\u00a0\u00bb The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France’s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.
\nItaly has increased the alert level from \u00ab\u00a0Shout Loudly and Excitedly\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0Elaborate Military Posturing.\u00a0\u00bb Two more levels remain: \u00ab\u00a0Ineffective Combat Operations\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Change Sides.\u00a0\u00bb
\nThe Germans have increased their alert state from \u00ab\u00a0Disdainful Arrogance\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.\u00a0\u00bb They also have two higher levels: \u00ab\u00a0Invade a Neighbor\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Lose.\u00a0\u00bb
\nBelgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.
\nThe Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
\nAmericans meanwhile and as usual are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies, just in case.
\nAnd in the southern hemisphere…
\nNew Zealand has also raised its security levels – from \u00ab\u00a0baaa\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0BAAAA!\u00a0\u00bb. Due to continuing defense cutbacks (the airforce being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister’s bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is \u00ab\u00a0I hope Australia will come and rescue us\u00a0\u00bb.
\nAustralia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from \u00ab\u00a0No worries\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0She’ll be right, mate\u00a0\u00bb. Three more escalation levels remain: \u00ab\u00a0Crikey!’, \u00ab\u00a0I think we’ll need to cancel the barbie this weekend\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0The barbie is cancelled\u00a0\u00bb. So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ce texte a \u00e9t\u00e9 publi\u00e9 pr\u00e9c\u00e9demment il y a neuf ans. Dans un article pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent consacr\u00e9 \u00e0 P.G. Wodehouse, j\u2019avais \u00e9voqu\u00e9 le caract\u00e8re intraduisible de ce mot si britannique d\u2019understatement. Certains anglophones scolaires pourront vous dire que understatement pourrait tr\u00e8s bien se traduire par litote ou par euph\u00e9misme. H\u00e9 bien, ce n\u2019est pas mon avis … Continuer la lecture de Understatement and the english soul<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94],"tags":[21],"class_list":["post-47381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critiques","tag-philippe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leblogdescoutheillas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}