French-English translation?

芦聽Un voyageur est un homme qui s鈥檈n va chercher un bout de conversation au bout du monde聽禄

-Barbey d鈥橝urevilly



Is there any way not to get rid of the pun on 'bout' in the English translation?French-English translation?
The best I can up with is to turn the pun from a parallel to an opposite : 'A traveler is a person who will go to any lengths for a short conversation."French-English translation?
Not really, seeing as the English word "bout" and the French word spelled the same way (but pronounced differently) are what's referred to as "faux amis" - literally "false friends". This means that they have completely different meanings. The French word roughly translates as "bit", "piece", "segment", etc.French-English translation?
A traveller is a man who goes away to look for a conversation halfway 'round the world.

"A traveller is a man who goes to the end of the world just to chat about the weather in a different place."?

Not very good. Oh well, go with Erik's.

That's probably what I'd translate it to. It doesn't keep the pun, but it sort of keeps the same tone.


Obviously the literal translation is "A traveller is a man who goes away to look for a bit of a conversation at the end of the world."