This is a popup for the Chinese version of On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur 'It is only with the heart that one sees rightly', from The Little Prince.

The subject on (English 'one')

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In French, on ('one') is a common pronoun referring to 'people in general'. Katherine Woods translates it as 'one'.

Chinese hasn't got a pronoun equivalent to on or 'one', so it has to find other ways of expressing this.

• The commonest solution is also the simplest -- leave it out! This is the approach taken by 27 translators. Thus: "Can only see clearly with the heart". Chinese is much more comfortable with 'subjectless sentences' than English or French.
• The second commonest is to use words meaning 'person' or 'people', adopted by roughly a quarter of translators (14 occurrences). Such words include 一個人 / 一个人 yīge rén 'one person' and 人 rén 'person'.

(These don't include the three sentence patterns that make 'the heart' into the subject, nor the translation that uses a nominalisation.

English and French original

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There is a surprising difference in the way that translators working from the French original translate on, and those working from Katherine Woods' English translate 'one'.

Fully half of translators from English use words meaning 'a person' or 'people' to translate 'one'. Only two translators from the French translate on as 'a person' or 'people'. French translators much prefer to just leave out the pronoun. Take a look at this table:

(Table omits the three translations that make 'heart' the subject, and the translation using a nominalised verb)

I can suggest a few possible reasons for the difference. For instance:

1. On is very common in French and doesn't stand out; therefore it's quite natural to translate it as 'zero'. In English, 'one' is much less common; translators therefore feel the need to spell it out.

2. For similar reasons, 'zero' may have become the automatic or kneejerk equivalent of on in Chinese. 一个人 yīge rén 'a person' may have become the kneejerk equivalent of 'one'.

3. Dictionaries may play a role. That is, French-Chinese dictionaries and English-Chinese dictionaries may have different entries for on and 'one'. (This needs to be confirmed).

4. Translators from English may (for whatever reason) be more inclined to use freer translations. That is, rather than being tied down by conventional or literal translations (such as 'zero' for on), they may be readier to use colloquial or everyday expressions, thus swinging the scales towards words like 一个人 yīge rén 'a person'.

But these are mere guesses. Whatever the reason, we can be sure of one thing: translation is far from being a neutral process. The language that is being translated exerts a clear but often unexplained influence on the final translation.

This has rather interesting implications for the study of translationese. Some scholars have tried to use statistical methods to show that translationese doesn't exist; that is, there's no real difference between translated works and works directly written in the language in question. This example demonstrates that the source language does have a measurable impact on word-use in translation.

Placing of the subject

The subject (on or 'one') can be placed before the A clause or before the B clause:

PRESENCE AND PLACING OF THE SUBJECT ON
Subject	A Clause		Subject	B Clause		Occurrences
--	(只有) (zhǐ yǒu) '(only if)'	用心 yòng xīn 'use the heart'	--	才 cái 'only then'	能看得清楚 néng kàn-de-qīngchu 'can see clearly'	24
人 rén 'person'	(只有) (zhǐ yǒu) '(only if)'	用心 yòng xīn 'use the heart'	--	才 cái 'only then'	能看得清楚 néng kàn-de-qīngchu 'can see clearly'	11
--	(只有) (zhǐ yǒu) '(only if)'	用心 yòng xīn 'use the heart'	人 rén 'person'	才 cái 'only then'	能看得清楚 néng kàn-de-qīngchu 'can see clearly'	4
Total						39

While the majority prefer to put the subject at the start of the sentence, there are several who start the sentence without a clear subject and only specify it at the second clause.

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