Joris-Karl Huysmans > Quotes > Quote > MihaElla liked it

MihaElla, I'm curious. Is the following a good translation of this quote:
"To love one another from a distance, hopelessly, unrequitedly, not counting on reciprocity, never to belong to each other, to chastely dream of inaccessible charms, impossible kisses, and caresses that faded on a dead forehead that had faded from memory - oh. what a wonderful, unclouded happiness it must be! Everything else is abomination and decay."

I guess this is a fine translation from Russian, Laysee!

Here is a translation from the French text, if you want to compare both!

'To love one another from a distance, hopelessly, never to belong to one another, to chastely dream of pale charms, impossible kisses, and caresses on a dead forehead that had faded from memory - oh! what an exquisite and uncurable wandering! Everything else is hollow and disgusting.'


And here is the French original :)
'S’aimer de loin et sans espoir, ne jamais s’appartenir, rêver chastement à de pâles appas, à d’impossibles baisers, à des caresses éteintes sur des fronts oubliés
de mortes, ah ! C’est quelque chose comme un égarement délicieux et sans retour !
Tout le reste est ignoble ou vide.'

Dear Laysee, I’m glad you were curious, I was too – and I was rewarded with a nice sentiment of the quote. Here is my modest interpretation – considering that Russian is not my native language 😊

‘To love one another from afar, hopelessly, unrequitedly, not counting on a mutual response, never to belong to one another, purely dreaming of inaccessible delights, of impossible kisses, of caresses, withered on the dead brow that extinguished from the memory – ah, how this should be a marvelous, unshadowed happiness! All the rest is meanness and rottenness.’

Thank you, dear P. E. So kind of you to provide the French translation. I prefer it to the Russian version - a little more poetic, yet it retained the melancholia of loving from the sidelines.

MihaElla wrote: "Dear Laysee, I’m glad you were curious, I was too – and I was rewarded with a nice sentiment of the quote. Here is my modest interpretation – considering that Russian is not my native language 😊

‘.‘To love one another from afar, hopelessly, unrequitedly, not counting on a mutual response, never to belong to one another, purely dreaming of inaccessible delights, of impossible kisses, of caresses, withered on the dead brow that extinguished from the memory – ah, how this should be a marvelous, unshadowed happiness! All the rest is meanness and rottenness.’.."

MihaElla, you are amazing. How many languages do you speak and write? This is beautifully translated, too. Thank you!

I owe you many thanks for posting this quote, P.E.! Also, for the original French translation - unfortunately I don't possess any knowledge of this language, although I should considering that my mother wanted to be a French language teacher :-).
I haven’t heard about this personage before but presently I wish to dig more and deeper 😉

Ah, you’re so kind and generous, Laysee. Thank you more, as always!
It was my pleasure to translate it – in written form– as I did it anyway for myself mentally upon encountering the quote.
I wish there were many but officially there are only 3 of them (RO, EN, RU). Fortunately, because of sharing of same roots with mother language (Latin) I can grasp meaning (& speaking is always easier than writing) with the other Romance-speaking areas, such as: Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, while French is a complete 'tabula rasa' - paradoxically in my case 😊 😉