Help please?

[Munachi]

Hi... Sorry that this post is in English - I have posted here before so some of you might know that my french is quite basic. Well, I have to read a text for a university class, and often stumble over parts that I don't understand... So I thought I might post some of them here and maybe someone could help me and tell me what they say. Doesn't have to be a perfect translation, but I need to get the general ideas... Thanks a lot for your help...

Here's the first one:

La spécificité d'Haiti tenait au cadre á l'échelle et à sa précocité que la fit initier sans modèle une évolution dont bien des traits sont enracinés dans la tradition coloniale, et se retrouvent de ce fait sous des traits différents qui relèvent de la nuance, d'une ile à l'autre.

 

[chauderlos]

Ok, I gave it a try, but I must confess that even in French I didn't quite understand what it meant...

The specificity of Haiti lies within the frame of its scale and its precocity that without model an evolution made it initiate of which many features are rooted in the colonial tradition, and find of this fact under different features which concern the different shades from one island to an other.

 

[Munachi]

Thanks a lot! Here is another one:
... le paysan devait compter avec la double pression de l'etat, d'une part, qui revendiquait une propriete eminente du sol ou etait installee la communaute, de celle-ci, d'autre part,dans la mesure ou les terres etaient restees formellement dans l'indivision; les titres eventuels de propriete etaient libelles au nom d'une seule personne, l'ancetre commun qui avait fonde le lignage.

 

[chauderlos]

Here you go. Again, I didn't sweat a lot over it, so don't expect an accurate translation with grat literary values.

The farmer had to deal with the double pressure both from the State, who claimed obvious property of the land where the community had settled, and from the community itself, in so far the land had been kept formally in the joint ownership*, the title deeds bearing the name of one person, the ancestor who had founded the lineage.

******
* I'm not sure of this translation. "Indivision" is a legal term, referring to real estate (building or land) that, property of which is transferred to the heirs in equal parts.



May I ask you on what you're working?

 

[Munachi]

Thanks... Can I ask you the next sentences I got stuck at? It is:

"L'Etat detenait, theoriquement, plus de la moitié de la surface agricole ultile, mais, en fait, les terres du Domaine National etaient pour l'essentiel deja sujettes a des occupations spontanees de la part de paysans sans terres, a moins d'etre laissees en ferme a des particuliers qui finissaient par se les appropirer en bonne et due forme. Avant de songer a vendre des terres a des etrangers dans le but d'attirer le progres de ce cote de l'ile, les gouvernements haitiens avaient dilapide leurs reserves foncieres comme un vulgaire butin de guerre par des dons gracieux et la vente des meilleures plantations du pays."

I am reading a text called "Haiti, Republique Dominicaine. Une ile pour deux. 1804-1916" by Jean-Marie Dulix Theodat. The chapter I am reading is called "De la singularite insulaire a la insularite singulaire" - we have to give a presentation about this text on thursday, and discuss the concepts of the text - I am preparing the part about Haiti...

Thanks again for your help! and the translation doesn't need to be very exact, I just need to get an idea...

 

[chauderlos]

The State owned, theoretically, more than half of the agricultural surface, but, in fact, the grounds of the National Domain were mostly already subject to spontaneous occupations on behalf of peasants without grounds or they were left on "tenant farming" for individuals who ended owning them in due form. Before thinking of selling grounds to strangers in order to attract progress to this side of the island, Haitian governments had wasted their reserves like vulgar spoils of war by gracious gifts and the sale of the best plantations of the country.

Good luk with your presentation. What do you study? History?

 

[Munachi]

thanks!

i study latin american studies, usually mainly about hispanoamerican literature and linguistics, but this course is about the carribbean, and i chose the topic about haiti because i find that country's history quite fascinating...

 

[chauderlos]

So maybe you could suggest some interesting Latino-american authors?
Apart from Garcia-Marquèz, I don't think I know much...

 

[Munachi]

One that I like, and that isn't that well known outside of her country (Mexico) is Carmen Boullosa. Her books vary a lot though - some are quite difficult to read, others not... Depends a bit on your reading taste...

Vargas Llosa is of course very popular, though I must say a lot of his books I didn't like that much. La fiesta del chivo, Lituma en los Andes and some others are okay though.