French–English parallel text
Le mauvais numéro
The Wrong Number
DuoText
A bilingual French–English edition: the French text with the English beside it, paragraph by paragraph.
Opening the reader…
Une petite erreur
One small mistake
Wanjiru a habité à Nairobi. Elle avait vingt-neuf ans et elle était coiffeuse.
Wanjiru lived in Nairobi. She was twenty-nine, and she was a hairdresser.
Elle a travaillé dans un salon très occupé dans le centre-ville. Mais le salon n’était pas à elle. Le propriétaire a gardé la plus grande partie de l’argent.
She worked in a busy salon in the city centre. But the salon was not hers. The owner kept most of the money.
Chaque mois, Wanjiru a économisé un peu. Elle avait un projet. Un jour, elle voulait son propre salon.
Every month, Wanjiru saved a little. She had a plan. One day, she wanted her own salon.
Le vendredi soir, elle est montée dans le bus pour rentrer chez elle et elle a ouvert l’application de sa banque. Il y avait 210 000 shillings sur son compte.
On Friday evening, she sat on the bus home and opened her bank app. There were 210,000 shillings in her account.
« Deux cent dix mille, a-t-elle dit doucement. Encore quatre-vingt-dix mille et je vais pouvoir commencer. »
“Two hundred and ten thousand,” she said quietly. “Ninety thousand more, and I can start.”
Puis son téléphone a sonné. C’était sa mère.
Then her phone rang. It was her mother.
« Wanjiru ? C’est maman. Comment vas-tu, mon enfant ? »
“Wanjiru? It’s Mama. How are you, my child?”
« Je vais bien, maman. Je suis dans le bus. Tout va bien ? »
“I’m fine, Mama. I’m on the bus. Is everything OK?”
« Tout va bien. Enfin, presque. C’est encore le toit. Il a beaucoup plu hier soir et l’eau est entrée dans la cuisine. »
“Everything is fine. Well, almost. It’s the roof again. There was a lot of rain last night, and the water came into the kitchen.”
« Encore ? Tu as appelé l’homme du village ? »
“Again? Did you call the man from the village?”
« Oui. Il est venu ce matin et il a regardé le toit. “Cinquante mille, a-t-il dit. Je peux commencer lundi.” »
“Yes. He came this morning and looked at it. ‘Fifty thousand,’ he said. ‘I can start on Monday.’”
Wanjiru a regardé le nombre sur l’application de sa banque. Cinquante mille shillings, c’était cinq mois d’économies.
Wanjiru looked at the number in her bank app. Fifty thousand shillings was five months of saving.
« Je suis désolée, mon enfant, a dit sa mère. Je connais ton projet de salon. Je n’aime pas te demander de l’argent. »
“I’m sorry, my child,” said her mother. “I know about your salon. I don’t like asking you.”
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