translation

[isabelle hayes]

"Mais je n'en avais pas eu la notion tant mon voisin avait su me conduire sur les pas de cette silhouette dessechee..."

I'm not sure this is a good translation, into modern american english:

But I had the idea that my neighbor had known how to get me into the shoes of this shriveled silhouette...

tia

isabelle

[Marc Vonhalmen]

Hi,

I'm not sure you translated this correctly. Having the context, or at least the prior sentence, would really help.

[isabelle hayes]

the context is a conversation between two resistance chiefs brought to London during the war; the narrator is amazed at the other man, who he doesn't know, who has been describing his amazement and love for the people he's worked with back in France, and their courage and spirit; one of whom is a mother and wife of a bureaucrat in Paris, whose family is undernourished, among other things; it is she to whom the reference is "silhouette dessechee"

the sentences before my question are;

Tout le monde avait quitte la table du diner et gagne un grand salon. Nous aussi. Mais je n'en avais pas eu..."

tia

isabelle