Tartarin De Tarascon

Alphonse Daudet

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. The tale of Tartarin de Tarascon was written by Alphonse Daudet in 1872, and was one of the many works which he produced. In it he pokes gentle fun at a type of Frenchman who comes from the Midi, the area where he himself was born. Tartarin has characteristics which may remind the English-speaking reader of Toad of Toad Hall, a boastful braggart, easily deceived, but good-hearted au fond.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819939009
• Langue: English

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TARTARIN DE TARASCON
By A. Daudet.
Translated by Oliver C. Colt.
Introduction.
The tale of Tartarin de Tarascon was written byAlphonse Daudet in 1872, and was one of the many works which heproduced. In it he pokes gentle fun at a type of Frenchman whocomes from the Midi, the area where he himself was born. Tartarinhas characteristics which may remind the English-speaking reader ofToad of Toad Hall, a boastful braggart, easily deceived, butgood-hearted au fond.
The world he inhabits is, of course, very differentfrom ours. There is no radio or television, the motor car is nomore than a plaything for the rich. There is only the beginnings ofa telephone system. Much sea transport is still by sailing ship andthe idea of mass air travel is in the realm of science-fiction.France lost the Franco-Prussian war at the battle of Sedan in 1870,which accounts for the flood of refugees from Alsasce. She hadalso, in the 19th century rush to carve up the African continent,seized among other places, Algeria, which she held in subjection byforce of arms. So-called Big Game Hunters were regarded with someadmiration, and indeed it was a much more perilous activity than itis today, when high power repeating rifles with telescopic sightsmake motor-borne “Sportsmen” little more than butchers.
Daudet's humour is on the whole inoffensive, butanti-semitism was rife in certain circles in France. It was the eraof the Dreyfus scandal, and he indulges in one or two tastelessgibes at the expense of the Jews, which I have suppressed or atleast amended. He also has a passage which might well offend thedelicate susceptabilities of the less tolerant believers in Islam,although to anyone with a nodding acquaintance with the tents ofthat faith, the incident is so far-fetched as to neutralise “Thewilling suspension of disbelief” I have therefore decided toeliminate it from this version of the story. It is not very amusingand is no great loss.
Although Daudet's humour is in the main kindly, hedoes not spare the French colonial administration of the time. Histreatment of the subject is acidly satirical. It may be said thatDaudet seems to know little about firearms, less about lions andnothing about camels, but he is not striving for verisimilitude.After all, the adventures of James Bond do not mirror the realityof international espionage, nor do the exploits of Bertie Woosterand Jeeves truely reflect life in the upper echelons of Britishsociety.
This is not a schoolroom exercise in translation. Itmight be more accurately described as a version in English. I havenot tampered with the story line nor made any changes in the eventsrelated, but where I thought it necessary I have not shrunk fromaltering the words and phrases used in the original to describethem. All translation must be a matter of paraphrase. What soundswell in one language may sound ridiculous if translated literallyinto another, and it is for the translator to judge how far thisprocess of paraphrase may be carried.
I have attempted to produce a text which willentertain the average reader. Those who want to know exactly whatDaudet wrote must consult the French original.
TARTARIN DE TARASCON
Chapter 1.
Although it is now some twelve or fifteen yearssince my first meeting with Tartarin de Tarascon, the memory of theencounter remains as fresh as if it had been yesterday.
At that time Tartarin lived near the entrance to thetown, in the third house on the left on the Avignon road, a prettylittle Tarascon villa, with a garden in front, a balcony behind,very white walls and green shutters.
From outside the place looked perfectly ordinary,one would never have believed that it was the home of a hero, butwhen one went inside, well. . . My goodness! The wholeestablishment had an heroic air, even the garden!
Ah. . . ! The Garden. . . there was not another likeit in Europe. Not one indigenous tree grew there, not one Frenchflower; nothing but exotic plants, gum trees, calabashes, cottontrees, coconut palms, mangos, bananas, cactuses, figs and a baobab.One might have thought oneself in the middle of Africa, thousandsof miles from Tarascon. Of course none of these trees was fullygrown, the coconut palm was about the size of a swede and thebaobab (arbos gigantica) fitted comfortably into a pot full ofearth and gravel. No matter. . . . For Tarascon it was quitesplendid, and those citizens who were admitted, on Sundays, to havethe privilege of inspecting Tartarin's baobab went home full ofadmiration.
You may imagine my emotions as I walked through thisremarkable garden. . . they were nothing, however, to what I felton being admitted to the sanctum of the great man himself.
This building, one of the curiosities of the town,was at the end of the garden, to which it opened through a glassdoor. Picture a large room hung from floor to ceiling with firearmsand swords; weapons from every country in the world. Guns,carbines, rifles, blunderbusses, knives, spears, revolvers,daggers, arrows, assegais, knobkerries, knuckledusters and I knownot what.
The brilliant sunlight glittered on the steel bladesof sabres and the polished butts of firearms. It was really quite amenacing scene. . . what was a little reassuring was the good orderand discipline which ruled over this arsenal. Everything was neattidy and dusted. Here and there a simple notice, reading “Poisonarrows, Do not touch. ” or “Beware. Loaded firearms. ” made onefeel it safe to approach.
In the middle of the room was a table. On the tablewas a flagon of rum, a turkish tobacco pouch, The voyages ofCaptain Cook, stories of adventure, treatises on falconry,descriptions of big-game hunts etc. . . and finally seated at thetable was the man himself. Forty to forty-five years of age, short,fat, stocky and ruddy, clad in shirt-sleeves and flannel trousers,with a close-clipped wiry beard and a flamboyant eye. In one handhe held a book and with the other he brandished an enormous pipe,its bowl covered by a metal cap; and as he read some stirring taleof the pursuit of hairy creatures, he made, pushing out his lowerlip, a fierce grimace which gave his features, those of acomfortable Tarascon “Rentier”, the same air of hearty ferocitywhich was evident throughout the whole house. This man wasTartarin. . . Tartarin de Tarascon. . . the intrepid, great andincomparable Tartarin de Tarascon.
At that time Tartarin was not the Tartarin which heis today, the great Tartarin de Tarascon who is so popularthroughout the Midi of France, however, even at this epoch, he wasalready the king of Tarascon.
Let us examine how he acquired his crown. You willbe aware, for a start, that everyone in these parts is a hunter.From the highest to the lowest hunting is a passion with theTarasconais and has been ever since the legendary Tarasque prowledin the marshes near the town and was hunted down by thecitizens.
Now, every Sunday morning, the men of Tarascon takeup arms and leave town, bag on back and gun on shoulder, with anexcited collection of dogs, with ferrets, with trumpets and huntinghorns, it is a splendid spectacle. . . . Sadly, however, there is ashortage of game. . . in fact there is a total absence of game. . .. Animals may be dumb but they are not stupid, so for miles aroundTarascon the burrows are empty and the nests abandoned. There isnot a quail, not a blackbird, not the smallest rabbit nor even thetiniest wheatear.
These pretty little Tarascon hills, scented withlavender, myrtle and rosemary are very tempting, and those finemuscat grapes, swollen with sugar, which line the banks of theRhone, are wonderfully appetising. . . yes, but there is Tarasconin he distance, and in the world of fur and feather Tarascon is badnews. The birds of passage seem to have marked it with a cross ontheir maps, and when the long wedges of wild duck, heading for theCamargue, see far off the town's steeples, the whole flight veersaway. In short there is nothing left by way of game in this part ofthe country but an old rascal of a hare, who has escaped by somemiracle the guns of Tarascon and appears determined to stay there.This hare is well known. He has been given a name. He is called“Speedy”. He is known to live on land belonging to M. Bompard. . .which, by the way, has doubled or even tripled its value. No onehas yet been able to catch him, and at the present time there arenot more than two or three fanatics who go after him. The rest havegiven up and Speedy has become something of a protected species,though the Tarasconais are not very conservation minded and wouldmake a stew of the rarest of creatures, if they managed to shootone.
Now, you may say, “Since game is in such shortsupply, what do these Tarasconais sportsmen do every Sunday? ” Whatdo they do? Eh! Mon Dieu! They go out into the country, severalmiles from the town. They assemble in little groups of five or six.They settle down comfortably in some shady spot. They take out oftheir game-bags a nice piece of boeuf-en-daube, some raw onions, asausage and some anchovies and they begin a very long luncheon,washed down by one of these jolly Rhone wines, which encouragesinging and laughter.
When all have had enough, they whistle for the dogs,load their guns and commence the shoot. That is to say each ofthese gentlemen takes off his hat, sends it spinning through theair with all his strength and takes a pot-shot at it. The one whohits his hat most frequently is proclaimed king of the hunt andreturns to Tarascon that evening in triumph, his perforated hathanging from the end of his gun and to the accompaniment of muchbarking and blowing of trumpets.
One need hardly tell you that there is a brisk tradein hats in the town, and there are even hatters who sell hatsalready full of holes and tears for use by the less skillful, butscarcely anyone is known to buy them except Bezuquet thechemist.
As a hat shooter Tartarin had no equal. Every Sundaymorning he left with a new hat. Every evening he returned with a