Here is my conditionnel exercise which I did (for fun)
based on a book that I love: Jean de Florette. I imagined what Le Papet would say if he allowed himself to believe that Jean Cadoret was his son. Please let me know of any errors or anglicismes that I made
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If this is my son, I will give him all that I have: my farm, my heritage, my time, my love... I will invite him to my home every evening. We will dine together. I will pass the hours with him to impart all the wisdom of my experiences. I will not make fun of his odd agricultural methods. No, instead, I will give him friendly suggestions. The unpleasant effects of the drought will not touch him. And his lack of knowledge in agriculture will not be the disaster that he is (I wondered if I had this right, by the time I got to the end I imagined that I had). I will never lead him to suffer. No, not my son. An irrelevant man (did you mean (the potential uses and connotations between this and étranger are irritating and mind-boggling), yes, but not my son. For him, I will do everything; I will do more than everything, because it will continue the line of Soubeyrans and it will guard for this name all the privileges which my ancestors worked hard to acquire. Moreover, I will not laugh at his artistic side. No, on the contrary, I will be proud. Yes, his artistic side, that will be another reason to respect the name Soubeyran. Ah, if he were my son... but he is not... Alas, if he dies or not--that is all the same to me (this might have been better served by cela m'est égal).
Hm, this translation process made me think of many odd things. Maybe I'll soon try again to think in French a little, though it's not been that terribly long since last time at the very least. Good to see you writing in the language, though; it inspires. Always from an interest in the human evolution do I find my wish to know how to communicate it further.
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I said:
thusly - I like that.
your french comprehension is quite good. Just that you mixed up your conditional and future tenses. The conditional has imparfait avoir endings whereas the future has present tense avoir endings. "Il" can mean "it" or "he" depending on the context. "Lui" can mean "to him" "to her" or "to it". And if you think that french is not specific that way, well english has that same ambiguity with "them" which can mean "those boys" "those girls" "those girls and boys" or "those things". As for "un étranger" I meant "foreigner" but not in the sense of someone from another country but more in the sense of someone who was not born and raised in Le Papet's town. Anyone from Le Papet's town considered anyone from outside of it a foreigner. In my translation, I used "stranger" because it includes people from out of the town as well as those from another country. And everyone from Le Papet's town knew or knew of each other, so there were no strangers within the town.
Here is the translation so you can compare:
If HE WERE my son, I WOULD give him all that I have: my farm, my INHERITANCE, my time, my love... I would invite him to my home every evening. We would dine together. I would SPEND hours imparting all the wisdom of my experiences to him. I would not make fun of his bizarre agricultural methods. No, instead, I would give him friendly suggestions. The unpleasant effects of the drought would not touch him. And his lack of knowledge in agriculture would not be the disaster that IT is. I would never LET him suffer. No, not my son. A STRANGER, yes, but not my son. For him, I would do everything. I would do EVEN more than everything, because he would continue the line of the Soubeyrans and KEEP for this name all the privileges which my ancestors worked hard to acquire. Moreover, I would not laugh at his artistic side. No, on the contrary, I would be proud. Yes, his artistic side, that would be another reason to respect the name Soubeyran. Ah, if he were my son... but he is not... So, whether he drops dead or not, it's all the same to me.
p.s. why did you think the last line would have been better served by CELA m'est égal - just for the rhythmic punch?
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I had a feeling it might be worded differently throughout the length of the entry, but I didn't really know, per se. It's always very strange to me, trying to delve into these surreal levels of language when I'm literally a novice.
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