Paris 8 IEE thème

One student asked if I could post a 'model' translation of the first text we worked on. Here it is, but remember this is just one of many possible ways of translating the text.

The People of Saint Denis Have their Say

The evening lasted an hour and a half, like a football match. This was the kick-off meeting of a series which will be organised by the council in connection with its mid-term review. On this democratic pitch, two hundred and fifty people took their seats in the town hall’s reception room early in the evening of 9 September. There was no one in the audience who had come in out of curiosity because they had seen the lights on, just men and women involved in community life and local participatory democracy. The purpose of the evening was for everyone to validate a method and target the priorities to be tackled during the four meetings planned in October and November.

In his introduction Didier Paillard [Mayor of Saint Denis, Ed.] spelt out the town’s "dynamism" but pleaded for everyone to speak freely and express a diversity of opinions, repeating that there were "no taboo subjects" and that councillors needed "to listen so that they [could] plan". The Mayor’s wish was granted. As soon as the facilitator opened the floor to the public, everyone wanted to speak. Of course insecurity "which is getting worse and worse" was targeted. The cleanliness – or rather dirtiness – of our public spaces was also pointed out. "I really love this town but it wears me out" was how a woman who lives near the station summed it up, saying she was "ashamed of living in a rubbish bin".

Adapted from the Journal de Saint Denis, 14 September 2011