À la recherche du temps perdu · The Map of Untranslatability

Where the line breaks

FRParts

À la rechercheSearch

du tempsTime

perduLost

FRSourceÀ la recherche du temps perdu

À la rechercheSource

du tempsSource

perduSource

EN English Published translation Remembrance of Things Past

Remembrance Breaks Cultural reference

Things Breaks Cultural reference

Past Thins Connotation

Published translation. C. K. Scott Moncrieff. The title is taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 (“remembrance of things past”), an English allusion Proust’s title does not make.

EN English Published translation In Search of Lost Time

In Search Arrives

Time Arrives

Lost Arrives

Published translation. The later English title, a calque. It replaced Moncrieff’s Shakespeare.

DE German Usual rendering Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit

Auf der Suche Arrives

Zeit Arrives

verlorenen Arrives

Usual rendering. The standard German title, a close calque.

JA Japanese Usual rendering 失われた時を求めて

求めて Arrives

時 Arrives

失われた Arrives

Usual rendering. The standard Japanese title. Japanese order puts the lost time before the seeking. The parts still match.

ZH Chinese Published translation 追忆似水年华

追忆 Breaks Cultural reference

年华 Breaks Cultural reference

似水 Breaks Cultural reference

Published translation. The familiar Chinese title of the 1991 translation. 周克希 has treated it as kin to the older English title, and used a closer name for his own volumes.

ZH Chinese Published translation 追寻逝去的时光

追寻 Arrives

时光 Thins Connotation

逝去的 Thins Connotation

Published translation. 周克希’s title, used for the volumes he completed.

Text alternative

English “Remembrance of Things Past” (published translation): breaks: cultural reference. English “In Search of Lost Time” (published translation): arrives. German “Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit” (usual rendering): arrives. Japanese “失われた時を求めて” (usual rendering): arrives. Chinese “追忆似水年华” (published translation): breaks: cultural reference. Chinese “追寻逝去的时光” (published translation): thins: connotation.

À la recherche Search

recherche is a search, and the word can also mean research. The title’s primary sense is the search, not a reminiscence already in hand.

What happens to “À la recherche” in each lane
Lane	Form	Status	Break	What happens
English	Remembrance	Breaks	Cultural reference	A remembering, not a search. The phrase is a Shakespeare citation.
English	In Search	Arrives	—	The search is back.
German	Auf der Suche	Arrives	—	The search is kept.
Japanese	求めて	Arrives	—	求める is to seek. The search arrives.
Chinese	追忆	Breaks	Cultural reference	追忆 is to recollect. The search has become remembrance, as in Moncrieff.
Chinese	追寻	Arrives	—	追寻 is to pursue, to search after.

du temps Time

temps: time. The object of the search.

What happens to “du temps” in each lane
Lane	Form	Status	Break	What happens
English	Things	Breaks	Cultural reference	“Things” replaces time. The sonnet’s wording has taken over.
English	Time	Arrives	—	Time is the object again.
German	Zeit	Arrives	—	Time is kept.
Japanese	時	Arrives	—	Time arrives.
Chinese	年华	Breaks	Cultural reference	年华 is the bloom of years, a literary Chinese phrase, not temps.
Chinese	时光	Thins	Connotation	时光 is time as lived, seasonal, a touch more lyrical than temps.

perdu Lost

perdu is lost, gone. A secondary reading, “wasted,” is available from expressions like perdre son temps. It is not required by the title. Marked as secondary.

What happens to “perdu” in each lane
Lane	Form	Status	Break	What happens
English	Past	Thins	Connotation	The past is adjacent to lost time. It drops both “lost” and the search.
English	Lost	Arrives	—	“Lost” matches the primary sense. The secondary “wasted time” reading, if one wants it, is still not in “lost.” It was never the title’s main sense.
German	verlorenen	Arrives	—	Lost, as a past participle agreeing with Zeit.
Japanese	失われた	Arrives	—	Lost, as a past participle on 時.
Chinese	似水	Breaks	Cultural reference	似水, “like water,” is a Chinese figure for time passing. Proust’s title has no river.
Chinese	逝去的	Thins	Connotation	逝去 is “passed away,” gone with time. Close to perdu, softer than “lost.”

The joint

À la recherche du temps perdu says what the book does. Someone is in search of time that has been lost. Recherche can also mean research. The title’s weight is the search.

Moncrieff’s Remembrance of Things Past replaces that sentence with a line from Sonnet 30. English readers for decades met a Shakespearean recollection, not a search, and “things” instead of time. The later English title, In Search of Lost Time, gives the search and the loss back.

German Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit and Japanese 失われた時を求めて are calques. They carry. The familiar Chinese title, 追忆似水年华, does what Moncrieff did by other means: it becomes a beautiful title in the target literature. Recollection, years like water. 周克希’s 追寻逝去的时光 comes back toward the French, with a lyrical tint in 时光 and 逝去.

Why this break matters to a reader

A reader of “Remembrance of Things Past” expects memory as a mood, and an English poet standing behind the book. A reader of the French, the German, or the later English expects a search, with time as the thing lost. Proust’s book is that search. The sonnet is a beautiful crate that contained a different good.