Within the novel’s first sentence, two subtle and seemingly minor translation decisions have the power to change the way we read everything that follows. So why do the pros keep getting it wrong? For the modern American reader, few lines in French literature are as famous as the opening of Albert Camus’s “L’Étranger”: “ Aujourd’hui, maman est morte.” Nitty-gritty tense issues aside, the first sentence of “The Stranger” is so elementary that even a schoolboy with a base knowledge of French could adequately translate it.
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