Ms. Andrée Maillet is a Québec novelist, poet, essayist, and journalist. She began writing at age eleven. She became a correspondent in the United States and in Europe. Her career in journalism lasted from 1943 to 1952 (https://tinyurl.com/r767w2h4).
Ms. Andrée Maillet was married to her great love, Dr. Lloyd Hamlyn Hobden (https://tinyurl.com/3zt2y8p9). Like her, the latter was passionate of the French language. Indeed, he earned a doctorate in French literature from the Sorbonne. Of note, he lived a heroic life. Indeed, when he was a student in Paris at the beginning of World War II, he quickly enlisted to fight Nazism. He did it as an officer of the Canadian Scottish Regiment in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. He got involved in the Normandy campaign in June 1944, which resulted in him being named “Chevalier of the Legion of Honour” (https://tinyurl.com/3zt2y8p9).
To come back to the great Ms. Maillet, in 1974, she was named to the Académie des lettres du Québec. In 1978, she was named an officer in the Order of Canada. Twelve years later, she received the Athanase-David Award (https://tinyurl.com/r767w2h4).
May Ms. Andrée Maillet’s memory and the memory of her spouse be eternal. This being said, now is the time to leave you, dear readers, with some of this Canadian’s deep insights. The original French follows the bold translated English. Of course, Bambi would be totally ungrateful if she does not acknowledge the prompt assistance of Mr. Google Translate, her loyal online friend.
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“War is not really a game between men. It is first and foremost a game of events, thoughts, peoples, interests, and feelings, and it is the game of Freedom, Faith, Peace, and familiar abstractions.
La guerre n’est pas vraiment un jeu d’hommes. C’est d’abord un jeu d’événements, de pensées, de peuples, d’intérêts, de sentiments, et c’est le jeu de la Liberté, de la Foi, de la Paix, des abstractions familières.
Memory is one of the most bizarre faculties of our intelligence. We really can’t trust it.
La mémoire est l’une des facultés les plus bizarres de notre intelligence. On ne peut vraiment pas s’y fier.
We never escape reality as long as we are lucid.
Jamais on n’échappe à la réalité tant qu’on est lucide.
Before you can make someone happy, you have to be someone yourself.
Avant de pouvoir faire le bonheur de quelqu’un, il faut être quelqu’un soi-même.
Isn’t each of us the vigilant guardian of our own sadness?
Chacun de nous n’est-il pas le gardien vigilant de sa propre tristesse?
La langue c’est notre vraie race, notre vraie patrie.
Language is our true race, our true homeland.
The harm that hurts us isn’t the harm that happens to us, but the harm we do to others.
Le mal qui nous fait mal, n’est pas le mal qui nous arrive mais le mal qu’on fait aux autres.
Life has only one meaning: a line that runs from birth to death. The rest is just embroidery.
La vie n’a qu’un sens : une ligne qui va de la naissance à la mort. Le reste n’est que broderie.
You have to learn to walk alone in life.
Il faut apprendre à marcher seul dans l’existence.
Some beings are like quicksand; do not enter into their intimacy for fear of being swallowed up.
Certains êtres sont comme des sables mouvants; n’entrez pas dans leur intimité de peur d’être engloutis.
Can one survive passion? What a question! We should ask ourselves if we can self-destruct without it.
Peut-on survivre à la passion? Quelle question! Il faut se demander si on peut s’achever soi-même sans elle.”
