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482愛的鼓勵 3訂閱站台

以前讀翻譯小說，會碰到些錢幣單位，譬如說一、兩世紀前的 sou，現在字典說它指小數目（The noun sou has one meaning: a former French coin of low denomination; often used of any small amount of money）
在傅雷翻譯Balzac的『高老頭』（Old Goriot）有些相關注：「所謂小錢是法國的一種舊銅幣，價值等於一個銅子(Sou)的四分之一。」「路易為法國舊時金幣，合二十至二十四法郎，隨時代而異。一路易約20法朗」

　例句：「總而言之，她做著一般巴黎小市民的黃金夢。她有一個鋼子一個銅子積起來的四萬法郎，對誰也沒有提過。」「漂亮的被褥衣物用舊了，他買十四銅子一碼的棉布來代替。」
我記憶中，這些約是1800年的情形。

我沒弄清楚的是，「法郎」與「銅板」之關係。後來才知道它應該是：一「法朗」＝20「銅板」，與英國的比例相通：The livre tournois【其解釋為：the term franc continued to be used in common parlance for the livre tournois.】 was, in common with the original libra of Charlemagne, divided into 20 sols (sous after 1715), each of which was divided into 12 deniers. These divisions were also adopted by the English for their Pound sterling, the names becoming shilling and penny.



這幾天讀”RENOIR, MY FATHER”，講約1850年的 Renoir 小時後去畫磁畫打工（He finally consented to pay Renoir by the piece. "I’ll start him on dessert plates at two sous the plate; three sous for Marie Antoinette in profile."）。又有一段說法：工人每天工作12小時，賺30蘇（黃先生不知道為什麼翻譯成「五十法郎」（p.16）），一蘇可以買十三個雞蛋（注意那時候的蛋非「量產」）：

Workmen worked twelve hours a day, and earned one franc fifty. A dozen eggs cost one sou and there were thirteen to the dozen. One sou was a large sum: it was worth two liards (equal to one English farthing in those days) and for one liard you could buy half a bun.

當時花盡錢財也用sou來表示，試看Renoir朋友當西貢市長，上級交待用香檳與英國較勁，他就散完財，喝完香檳再回國：It was the Baron Barbier, who had just returned from Indochina, "cleaned out to the last sou," as he expressed it. The government of the Republic had made him mayor of Saigon.