Post by denise on Jan 28, 2022 16:43:23 GMT
In 1983, the French actor, comic and clown Pierre Etaix published a book he named Croquis de Jerry Lewis (Sketches of Jerry Lewis). He and Jerry admired each other and became friends, although neither spoke the other's language. (To read about how they met, see my translation of Robert Benayoun's book Bonjour, Monsieur Lewis, Chapter 10: jerrylewis.freeforums.net/thread/286/benayouns-book-on-jerry). Etaix's book contains many sketches that he had drawn of Jerry. An animated version of these sketches can be seen in the opening credits of Robert Benayoun's six-part film on Jerry, also titled Bonjour, Monsieur Lewis. Watch them here: jerrylewis.freeforums.net/thread/399/bonjour-monsieur-lewis-episodes
Etaix particularly accents Jerry's mop of dark hair, his long, lizard tongue, his cleft chin, his thin stickman physique.
I recently acquired a copy of this book and decided to translate it as I translated Benayoun's book. Thankfully, Etaix's French was simpler, not as convoluted as Benayoun, and therefore easier to translate. However, the text contains precious little about Jerry! Etaix discusses comedy in general, clowns, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and other great comics of the silent screen, but mentions Jerry only briefly in the first part of the book. A big disappointment!
The book itself is rather strange: it is not divided into chapters, it is simply one, long text. There are not even page numbers. A double page is structured thus: on the left side is text in one, narrow column. On the right side is a sketch of Jerry, drawn by Pierre Etaix. So I divided the entire text into four parts. One paragraph in my translation corresponds to one text page of the book. There is also a preface and an introduction, so I am starting my installments of the translation with these. I hope you enjoy it!
Preface.pdf (31.21 KB) Inroduction.pdf (33.81 KB)