When I was writing the fifth issue of Batman: Kings of Fear, I decided it was in character for the Scarecrow—or, really, Doctor Jonathan Crane—to slip into a bit of French, perhaps channeling his fellow doctors, Frasier and Niles...Crane. (COINCIDENCE? Highly unlikely.)
But going over the lettering a few years later, I realized that the google translation I'd utilized when first writing the script might not be 100% reliable. (Please don't disappear me for impertinence, google.) So I went to an expert to have my slapdash French translation verified, someone who'd grown up speaking French, sometimes in French-speaking countries: my awesome nibling, Sam.
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Hey! YOU!
I already wrote your mom but I'm not sure if she'll be checking email this late and then it occurred to me that, hey, my good pal Sam might speak French.
...do you? kinda?
And, if so, does this roughly translate?
it's okay if it's not exact--he's not supposed to be fluent so much as pseudo-intellectual.
Also too: hi! how are you?
I do! a little! probably at least as well as Mom, anyway.
the note i'd make is the h is silent, so generally it'd be "l'homme de chauve-souris"
ah! most excellent!
it's also a little. stiff, I guess? but no more than saying "the man of the bat" in English so it definitely has that pseudo-intellectual flair
perfect
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And thusly I was absolutely positive that my Scarecrow was suitably pseudo-intellectually flaired.
that pseudo-intellectual flair
ReplyDeleteis my new life goal
cheers!