French term
France
Legal, Medical, Marketing & Gaming
Native in: French 
Works in: English to French, French, French to English
... qui ne s'écrit pas
"En un instant nous nous y égayions nus, riants, pleins d’une joie qui ne s’écrit pas."
The initial translation was "unwritable joy" but I found it really odd.
Non-PRO (2): Yvonne Gallagher, Carol Gullidge
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Proposed translations
writing cannot capture/my pen cannot express
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Note added at 4 hrs (2020-08-21 14:53:16 GMT)
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yes, "a joy that writing cannot capture" or "a joy that cannot be captured in writing", depending on how important it is to be concise given the style of the rest of the piece.
| So "a joy which writing cannot capture?" |
| agree |
Philippa Smith
: two nice solutions!
11 mins
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| agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: Yes to first option//OR "which cannot be captured in words" is more idiomatic I think
44 mins
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| agree |
Barbara Cochran, MFA
1 hr
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| agree |
SafeTex
: closest to original and the first translation yet sounds great
1 hr
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| agree |
Nicole Acher
: I like the fact that it retains the reference to written expression
15 hrs
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| agree |
Libby Cohen
: I choose the very personalized and poetic "my pen cannot express."
18 hrs
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| agree |
Eliza Hall
5 days
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Native in: English 
, French
Works in: English to French, French to English, German to French, and 4 more.
for which there are no words
| agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: This can have both positive and negative connotations
42 mins
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true but not in the context
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| agree |
Carol Gullidge
45 mins
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| agree |
Verginia Ophof
2 hrs
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| agree |
philgoddard
: All of these answers are just synonyms.
4 hrs
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| disagree |
Libby Cohen
: To me, this is too cumbersome a construction for the line in question.
18 hrs
|
United Kingdom
Going the extra mile for premium results
Native in: French (Variants: Luxembourgish, Canadian, Swiss, Belgian, Standard-France)
Works in: English to French, French to English
full of an unspeakable joy
Accurate, professional translations
Native in: English , Italian
Works in: Italian to English, French to English
indescribable
United Kingdom
Arts/Academic translator - Art historian
Native in: English
Works in: German to English, French to English
inexpressible / that cannot be conveyed
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Note added at 28 mins (2020-08-21 10:50:56 GMT)
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“In the last story, a fine restatement of the major theme, the image of inexpressible joy is a woman swimming naked,”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1...
| agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: Inexpressible
24 mins
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Thanks, Yvonne
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| agree |
Carol Gullidge
30 mins
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Thanks, Carol
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| agree |
Taylor Keenan
: I think that "inexpressible" would work the best here
12 hrs
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Thanks, Taylor
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40 years Engineer, 20 years translations
Native in: German
Works in: English to German, German to English, French to German, and 6 more.
beyond description
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Note added at 11 hrs (2020-08-21 21:25:07 GMT)
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Also: beyond words
United Kingdom
WorldWideWords
Native in: English (Variant: UK)
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, Portuguese to English
untold joy
indefinable (joy)
My heart swells with an indefinable joy
Canada
Fr-Eng subtitle and literary translator
Native in: English (Variants: British, Canadian)
Works in: French to English, English to French
... that no words can describe / or / indescribable
Last night I was caught up in traffic that no words can describe.
Discussion
Si c'est la bonne interprétation : it's a joy that can be expressed, described, etc but can't be written about.