Can any french speakers help me?

Question

I've just finished Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. My french is alright, but not brilliant, so I'm struggling with translating the last little bit. I can understand the odd word and phrase, but I need some help please!

Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour bien étrange,

Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n'eut plus son ange,

La chose simplement d'elle-même arriva,

Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.

Thanks in advance! x

Answer 1

He sleeps. While the fate was strange, he was living. He died when he lost his angel. The thing happened naturally, while the night happens, while the day fades away.

:-) My best shot

a French speaker  

Answer 2

go on google language they translate.

Les Miserables is brilliant.

Answer 3

This is the epitaph that is written on Jean Valjean's headstone who was at his own request buried in a nameless pauper's grave.

He is at rest. ("he  now sleeps": "he is dead") .

Although his destiny had been very strange, he lived.

He died when he lost his angel.

It all happened naturally, as night gently falls when the day draws to an end.

As you will have understood from the book, Jean Valjean was deprived of his beloved adopted daughter Cosette when he confessed to her young husband Marius that he was an ex-convict. Marius then asked him to stop seeing her. When this happened,  Jean was broken hearted and  no longer cared for life. He fell desperately ill. By the time that Marius realised that Jean was a good man (who even had saved his life) and the young couple came to see him, it was too late and Jean died in their arms.

"Le sort" refers to the extraordinary life that Jean had rising from rags to riches,  the troubled era in which he lived, and the difficult situations in which he found himself ; and "son ange" refers to Cosette.

Answer 4

"It sleeps.  Although the exit was for well strange, It lived.  It died when it no longer had his angel, The

thing simply of itself arrived, As the night is done when the day leaves."

This is a basic translation.

Hope it helps.

Answer 5

He sleeps. Although his fate was a very strange one,

He was alive. He died when his angel was no longer with him,

The thing simply happened of its own accord,

As night falls when day departs.