I need help with "Les misérables"

[hhsa...@gmail.com]

Hi All
I am from iran and I don't know french at all. I am reading an old
persian translation of "Les misérables". I think that the translator
may have mistranslated a sentence. Would you please help me with the
meaning of the word "sex" in the following sentence:

"Sa personne semblait faite d'ombre; à peine assez
de corps pour qu'il y eût là un sexe; un peu de matière contenant
une
lueur; de grands yeux toujours baissés; un prétexte pour qu'une âme
reste sur la terre."

Does it mean "sex" as "gender" or "the quality of being a woman/man" to
put it better, or something else?

I would be gratefull if you help me this one too:
" Ce qui avait été de la maigreur
dans sa jeunesse était devenu, dans sa maturité, de la transparence;
et
cette diaphanéité laissait voir l'ange."

What did the writer mean by "ange"?

Thanks in advance

--Hossein

[kodok]

Cher Hossein,

This sounds like a quote from "Les lettres persanes "of Montesquieu
(have you read that French classic ? It is all about France , in fact,
seen by an imaginary "Persan").
My guess is that sex in that sentence means "gender" or "the quality of
being a woman/man", as you very aptly said yourself.
"Ange" is an angel. I would think that Hugo is refering to that angelic
(holy ?) part of every human being as in the sentence of Pascal, a
great christian writer of the 17th c.
"L'homme n'est ni ange ni bête, et quand il veut faire l'ange, il fait
la bête".
I shall try to translate :
"Man is neither an angel nor a beast, and when he tries to act as an
angel, he acts like a beast".

Does that help you at all ?
Congratulation on you choice of books;I wish we knew more about
Persian litterature.

[John of Aix]

hhsa...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi All
> I am from iran and I don't know french at all. I am reading an old
> persian translation of "Les misérables". I think that the translator
> may have mistranslated a sentence. Would you please help me with the
> meaning of the word "sex" in the following sentence:
>
> "Sa personne semblait faite d'ombre; à peine assez
> de corps pour qu'il y eût là un sexe; un peu de matière contenant
> une
> lueur; de grands yeux toujours baissés; un prétexte pour qu'une âme
> reste sur la terre."
>
> Does it mean "sex" as "gender" or "the quality of being a woman/man"
> to put it better, or something else?

No it means the sexual organ, that is the usual use of the word in
French

> I would be gratefull if you help me this one too:
> " Ce qui avait été de la maigreur
> dans sa jeunesse était devenu, dans sa maturité, de la transparence;
> et
> cette diaphanéité laissait voir l'ange."
>
> What did the writer mean by "ange"?

That's hard to say. I would think it means their spiritual side, which
was more evident than perhaps it would be in others where their physical
force was primary and what one notices first.

Don't worry if you are having difficulties with Victor Hugo, he was a
great writer which inevitably means that he didn't write in a banal,
easy way. I think it is likely that he has many native French speakers
reaching for the dictionary let alone us poor foreigners.

Isn't it a brilliant book? I knew the story from English versions,
written or televised, but when I read it in French recently I was most
impressed both with the writing and the humanity.

[Montesquiou]

<hhsa...@gmail.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
1143920529.4...@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

Thanks in advance

--Hossein

Bonjour Hossein,
I understand here sexe as the organ,

Indeed you note that the sentence describe two parts of the body, the sex
and the eyes.

But what a wonderful sentence !

The sex is the body

The eyes are the soul

For " Ange ", I understand the word as purity , freedom from contamination.

For Hugo we all are angels at the birth. Then the life contaminate and
deprave us.

She was so lean that we can say she was not contaminated by what turn us big
and fat.

Congratulations for your message.