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I’m with Georges on this one. The whole thing seems pretty unfair. In fact, Jijé didn’t care for the scouts or the scouting element of ADS, which he considered a form of indoctrination similar to fascist youth groups. So perhaps he deliberately undermined the message in this strip?
Update: The accompanying Dutch text from Robbedoes Almanak 1944, translated by Miriam:
Is everyone still with us? Yes? Whoever has stuck to the rules so far is a brave man and surely won’t give up. The few who did give up get another chance this month to catch up on their backlog and show what they’re worth. Because, as you already know, this month our point is: A Friend of Spirou welcomes discipline freely and cheerfully.
Sounds strict, eh? But, see, a true Spirou Rascal or Rascalette wouldn’t shy away. On the contrary! Someone who really wants to be someone has to force themselves sometimes. They have to have the courage to do their duty – yes, I say their duty! Every single day and every waking moment. Their duty to their father and mother and brother and sister, their duty at school, on the street, everywhere they go. That’s the true spirit of Spirou. Not everyone can do this, only a real Spirou Rascal or Rascalette, a Friend of Spirou of the best kind.
So come joins us, boys and girls of every age: This month is the month of duty. Every evening we do a short survey of our conscience and ask ourselves if we did our duty. Do we have an agreement? Come on then! Show some courage! And see you next month!
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I’m curious for the next one! If I’m not mistaken it’s something along the lines of ‘A friend of Spirou is faithful to God, fatherland and language’. Louis says “No country is better than ours!”
It would be great if you translated the accompanying text too. The fourth one says “Who would be embarrassed for the language they learned from their Mother? That would be despicable. On the other side, we shouldn’t despise other languages, especially not if they’re spoken by fellow citizens.”
I’m not sure what version you’ve seen, Miriam. The strips have been published in a few different contexts: in the [i][url=http://bdoubliees.com/journalspirou/series1/codeh.htm]Journal[/url][/i], as a [url=http://spirou.perso.free.fr/Illustrations/AdS.html]poster[/url], reportedly in the [i]Moustique[/i], and reprinted in [i]Tout Jijé[/i] (my source). None of the publications I’m aware of have accompanying text like you describe; I’d be very interested to see it.
I was referring to this: http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/Toppers/Robbedoes/Robbedoes_014.htm
What I was talking about was ‘un ami de Spirou est fidèle à Dieu et à son pays’. Louis said “Vous ne devriez pas parler ainsi de votre patrie, c’est pas chic… D’ailleurs voyez ça cesse deja.” I guess it’s very differently translated to Dutch.
Aha! Thanks, that’s very cool. I suspect the text is indeed original to the Dutch version, and the translation certainly seems to have made a few changes.
Do you speak Dutch? If you could give me an English translation of the accompanying texts (just a rough translation will be fine) I’d be happy to include them with the strips.
… By the way, am I reading the text wrong, or do the Dutch version of the strips get the numbering of the rules wrong? On the other hand, I like “Robbedoesrakkers/-rakkeressen”; they sound more fun than uptight Louis here!
I do speak Dutch, and I’ll gladly translate the texts! Obviously you’ll have to correct my English, though.
You’re right, the Dutch version has the numbering wrong. I didn’t even know that, but Louis calls the third rule the second one, so that has to be the case.
‘Rakkeressen’ isn’t an actual word, it’s the made-up female version of ‘rakker’, meaning ‘rascal’.
So how can I send you my translations?
To reach me, the contact form on the About page goes to email; or you can get in touch on Facebook. Does tumblr have private messages? That would work too, but I don’t check tumblr daily.
“Spirou rascalettes” sounds rather sweet, as a liberal translation…
So, the Dutch have been rather liberal in their translations, it seems? Franquin did a lot of work for scouting organizations, but unlike Hergé, he was never a scout, himseld.
It seems the spelling in the Dutch examples is a bit old-fashioned. The words mensch (human) and valsch (false) end with -sch, instead of with -s, as they do nowadays. It looks similar to German spelling, but I guess the current spelling was a spelling reform to reflect pronunciation.
The translations to Dutch were liberal, yes. But it weren’t ‘the Dutch’: the translations of Spirou were mostly meant for the Flemish, and were probably written by Flemish people.
The spelling is very old-fashioned. I have to admit there were a few things I had to look up, like ‘het recht van vuist’, apparently meaning ‘honest and upright’.
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