Aurélie Lacoeuilhe
email: aurelie.lacoeuilhe@mnhn.fr.

Anne-Caroline Prévot

Assaf Shwartz

The social value of conservation initiatives in the workplace

Highlights

-We explored how biodiversity-friendly initiatives at work can influence employees -Biodiversity knowledge, perception, connectedness to nature and behaviour were explored -Initiatives can have small but significant impact on conservation awareness and behaviour -Initiatives can help connect people to nature averting the extinction of experience -Benefits of conservation action at work are thus two-

Introduction

Biodiversity continues to decline, despite the increase in conservation efforts [START_REF] Rands | Biodiversity conservation: challenges beyond 2010[END_REF]. Halting or decelerating this decline will largely depend on people's daily actions and on the ability to generate strong public support for encouraging governments to implement effective conservation policies [START_REF] Keniger | What are the benefits of interacting with nature?[END_REF]. The support and enthusiasm of people are therefore essential [START_REF] Ehrlich | Human natures, nature conservation, and environmental ethics[END_REF]). Yet, although most people are increasingly aware and concerned about environmental issues, very few do modify their behaviors accordingly [START_REF] Koger | The psychology of environmental problems. 3rd Edition[END_REF]. One reason invoked to explain this gap between awareness and actions is related to the decreased feeling of interconnections between people and nature, resulting from an increased separation due to global processes such urbanization [START_REF] Turner | Global urbanization and the separation of humans from nature[END_REF][START_REF] Miller | Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience[END_REF][START_REF] Strohbach | Birds and the city: urban biodiversity, land use, and socioeconomics[END_REF]). This issue is profoundly concerning, given the mounting evidence regarding the positive health and wellbeing outcomes of interacting with nature [START_REF] Bratman | The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health[END_REF][START_REF] Keniger | What are the benefits of interacting with nature?[END_REF][START_REF] Shanahan | Toward improved public health outcomes from urban nature[END_REF], but mostly since these interactions may influence the way people value nature and its conservation [START_REF] Fuller | Interactions between people and nature in urban environments[END_REF].

Today, the majority of the world's population lives in cities and spend most of their time indoors [START_REF] Koger | The psychology of environmental problems. 3rd Edition[END_REF], in particular at work, with limited interaction with elements of nature in their daily life [START_REF] Miller | Conservation where people live and work[END_REF]. This life style gradually separates people from the biological reality and contact with flora and fauna, resulting in an "extinction of experience" [START_REF] Pyle | The extinction of experience[END_REF][START_REF] Miller | Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience[END_REF]. This extinction of experience is a major environmental and societal issue, because it can modify the way people value nature and, therefore, undermine conservation efforts [START_REF] Soga | Extinction of experience: the loss of human-nature interactions[END_REF]. Indeed, some evidence already demonstrates that the experience of nature during childhood was (1) influential for those active in conservation [START_REF] Chawla | Life paths into effective environmental action[END_REF]; [START_REF] Skandrani | Beyond green-planning political orientations: contrasted public policies and their relevance to nature perceptions in two European capitals[END_REF] related to people's affinity for biodiversity [START_REF] Lindemann-Matthies | The influence of plant diversity on people's perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation[END_REF][START_REF] Shwartz | Virtual garden computer program for use in exploring the elements of biodiversity people want in cities[END_REF] and also that this nature-deficit [START_REF] Louv | Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder[END_REF]) could (3) influence the construction of individual environmental identity [START_REF] Clayton | Environmental Identity: a conceptual and an operational definition[END_REF], which consequently may decrease individual awareness and support for conservation [START_REF] Noss | Bolder thinking for conservation[END_REF]. This extinction of experience is not merely an environmental concern, because it is well established that interaction with nature leads to a multitude of health and wellbeing benefits for people (reviewed by [START_REF] Keniger | What are the benefits of interacting with nature?[END_REF].

Averting this extinction of experience involves increasing both the opportunity to directly experience nature and the orientation towards engaging with nature [START_REF] Lin | Opportunity or orientation? Who uses urban parks and why[END_REF][START_REF] Soga | Extinction of experience: the loss of human-nature interactions[END_REF]. One straightforward way to achieve this goal is to promote daily interaction with biodiversity in the places where people live and work [START_REF] Miller | Conservation where people live and work[END_REF]. Urban policies and practices have already started to enhance biodiversity in urban areas (e.g., [START_REF] Skandrani | Beyond green-planning political orientations: contrasted public policies and their relevance to nature perceptions in two European capitals[END_REF], which in turn may increase individual health and wellbeing [START_REF] Maas | Green space, urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation?[END_REF][START_REF] Fuller | Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity[END_REF]. Today, an average person spends much of his/her live at work (on average 8.0 hours per day during weekdays for Americans; BLS 2012), making the workplace the most dominate everyday life surrounding. It is therefore important to understand to what extent interaction between people and biodiversity can be enhanced in the workplace and how this interaction could influence individual attitudes and behaviors.

To date, little effort was made to explore biodiversity in the workplace [START_REF] Snep | Conservation where people work: A role for business districts and industrial areas in enhancing endangered butterfly populations?[END_REF]) and its influence on the perception of the employees [START_REF] Kaplan | Employees' reactions to nearby nature at their workplace: The wild and the tame[END_REF]. Workplaces often consist of a mixture between grey and green infrastructures (e.g., buildings, private gardens). From ecological perspective, these green spaces could increase connectivity [START_REF] Snep | Enhancing biodiversity at business sites: What are the options, and which of these do stakeholders prefer?[END_REF][START_REF] Löfvenhaft | Biotope patterns in urban areas: a conceptual model integrating biodiversity issues in spatial planning[END_REF], host diversity of common species and sometimes offer refuges for endangered species [START_REF] Snep | Conservation where people work: A role for business districts and industrial areas in enhancing endangered butterfly populations?[END_REF]. Moreover, the roofs and balconies of many workplaces could be converted to green roofs that can create several microhabitats [START_REF] Bates | Vegetation development over four years on two green roofs in the UK[END_REF]) and enhance biodiversity [START_REF] Madre | A comparison of 3 types of green roof as habitats for arthropods[END_REF]. These "living roofs and walls" are designed as opportunities to reconcile humans and biodiversity in the urban environment [START_REF] Francis | Urban reconciliation ecology: the potential of living roofs and walls[END_REF]. From the social perceptive, [START_REF] Kaplan | The role of nature in the context of the workplace[END_REF] pioneering study has pointed out that proximity and availability of nature in the workplace can foster many desired outcomes and even the simplest contact with nature (i.e., nature views from the office window) provides significant psychological benefits for employees. In a more recent work, she further demonstrated that employees preferred nature settings to places with major buildings areas [START_REF] Kaplan | Employees' reactions to nearby nature at their workplace: The wild and the tame[END_REF]. A recent study covering over seven thousand participant from 16 countries has demonstrated that having internal green spaces in the workplace can increase happiness and inspiration of employees and reduce boredom and anxiety (Human Spaces 2015). Yet, it is not clear to what extent efforts to conserve biodiversity at the workplace could influence employees' relationship with nature and conservation.

In this study, we explored how the implementation of biodiversity-friendly initiatives in a workplace (a power plant) influenced employees' relationship with biodiversity. From January 2012, the management team of the studied power plant in the west of France implemented several biodiversity-friendly practices in outdoor areas within the site.

Together with these initiatives, a communication campaign (i.e., signs and exhibition of nature photography) was conducted, in order to inform employees in those practices. We explored the outcomes of these initiatives on employees' relations to biodiversity by conducting a before-after survey. Specifically, we aimed to understand (1) how those initiatives influenced biodiversity-related perceptions, knowledge and connectedness of employees with nature, and ( 2) to what extent these initiatives were translated into individual nature-related behavioral changes.

Material and methods

Study area

The study was conducted in an industrial site, a power plant that produces electricity using coal and fuel oil in the western France. The power plant is located on the estuary of the Loire River to the Atlantic Ocean, about 30 kilometers west of the Nantes metropolis (one of the largest metropolis in France with about 900,000 inhabitants). The power plant and the small town adjacent to it 'Cordemais' (3000 inhabitants) are located within the European network of protected areas 'Natura 2000'. This protected area is mainly composed of extensively managed grassland and wet meadows grazed by cattle and surrounded by a dense network of hedgerows.

The industrial site is managed by the French electricity company EDF. During the recent years EDF has adopted a biodiversity-friendly approach for the management of its sites. This approach primarily aims at gathering environmental knowledge to better assess potential impacts on nature of EDF sites, so as to minimize those impacts by protecting ecosystems and the services they provide. More specifically, practices were selected to increase the diversity of local flowering species in order to promote the presence of pollinating insects and insectivore fauna. EDF started implementing the program in the Cordemais power plant from January 2012, introducing five practices as following: (1) creating flower-meadows using over 38 local species in three separated locations (near the reception, administrative and cafeteria buildings); (2) late mowing of remnant meadows located near the reception and cafeteria buildings; (3) identifying non-indigenous plant species in order to remove them; (4) reducing the use of pesticides; and (5) using mulching by leaving behind mowed grass to allow natural soil enrichment and creating a composting platform for valuing green waste of the site, which was commissioned in January 2013.

The change toward more sustainable management of open spaces within the power plant was accompanied with a communication campaign aiming to explain the implemented actions process and to increase conservation awareness of employees and visitors. Two photo exhibitions about nature were installed, the first in summer 2012 and the second in summer 2013. They were both installed in two areas: one on the access road to the power plant and the other within the site. In addition, educational panels were placed in the power plant: two about the overall approach for biodiversity-friendly management and one near each flowering meadow areas or late mowing areas. Employees were also encouraged to read some informative articles and explanations about these actions on the EDF website and on the power plant internal pages.

Study design

During July-September 2011, before the initiatives were implemented, we used the power plant mailing list to send online questionnaires to the 400 employees (Survey 1). The email contained the questionnaire and a few words about the study context. The questionnaire was filled out online using an internal software tool that employees knew and used regularly to give their opinion on different subjects and it was strictly anonymous. The questionnaires were first sent in early July 2011, a revival took place in August 2011, and the survey was stopped on the 15 th September 2011. Two years later, after the pro-biodiversity initiatives were implemented, we passed exactly the same questionnaire by email to the employees, in July-September 2013 (Survey 2).

Questionnaire design and measures

We constructed a questionnaire based on previously developed and tested tools (European Commission 2013; Simon and Goeldner-Gianella 2012; Cosquer 2012) that were used to explore the relationship between individuals and biodiversity in Europe and France (see Appendix A for a translated version of the questionnaire). For each of the respondents we collected few socio-professional details including the gender [gender], age (categorical: <30, 31-49 and 50< years old [age]) and profession (workers, employees with master's degrees equivalent and managers [profession]). The central part of our survey was set to measure changes in four main topics: biodiversity knowledge, biodiversity perception, connectedness to nature and nature-related behavior. The questionnaire contained 20 questions aiming to explore these themes (Appendix A).

Individual awareness to biodiversity

Biodiversity knowledge

Biodiversity knowledge was measured following the Euro-Barometer of the European Commission (2013) and [START_REF] Simon | Quelle biodiversité pour quels habitants dans la trame verte urbaine ? L'exemple du Val Maubuée (Seine-et-Marne, France)[END_REF]: Familiarity with the concept of biodiversity [biodiversity definition] was assessed by summing the scores of two items. The first item explored whether the respondent knows the meaning of term "biodiversity" (yes/no); if s/he answered "yes", the respondent was asked to write a definition of the term.

We scored the answer as following: no point for a negative answer, one point for a positive answer without definition, two points for a positive answer with definition referring to the diversity of plants and animals and three points for a positive answer with definition referring to interactions between all components of nature in the ecosystems. The second item asked respondents whether they think that ecosystems provide services to people (yes/no/don't know) [ecosystem services]. Again, if the respondent answered "yes", s/he was asked to give examples. Respondents got no point for negative answer, one point if they did not know, two points for positive answer and three points if s/he gave a scientifically validated example according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005).

Perception of the state of local biodiversity

The perception of the state of local biodiversity was assessed by three different items. The first (termed [perception of main threats]) asked respondents to identify the main threats for biodiversity in the town of the power plant. This multiple selection item included a list of ten potential threats (based on the IUCN list of threats) and answers were scored based on expert's opinion on the local threats. Three points were given to respondents who identified "urbanization" or "industry" as potential threats followed by "agriculture", "transports", or "global change" (two points), "invasive species" or "hunting" (one point) and no points were given for other answers (e.g., "hikers"). We considered the sum of each respondent's scores.

The second item (termed [local biodiversity perception]) assessed in the 1-5 Likert scale (from "very bad" to "very good") the state of biodiversity within the power plant. The higher the score, the better respondent perceived the state of biodiversity. In the third item (termed [local biodiversity assessment]) respondents were asked to identify important areas for biodiversity within the power plant. Respondents could choose between 13 areas (e.g., cafeteria building) within the power plant and its immediate proximity. The importance for biodiversity of these 13 sites was independently ranked (0 to 3 points) by experts, based on local biological reality and biodiversity surveys. Since biodiversity initiatives increased the biodiversity value of some sites (e.g., flowering meadows near reception building), this expert-based ranking changed between the two questionnaires surveys. To score the answers, we assigned to each site quoted by the respondent the biodiversity score assessed by the expert. We summed all these scores for all the sites quoted by the respondent, to compute a final score for [local biodiversity assessment] for each respondent.

Connectedness to nature

We assessed the connectedness to nature using a derived version of the Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) scale developed by [START_REF] Schultz | Inclusion with nature: Understanding human-nature interactions[END_REF]. This graphical measure examines to what extent an individual includes nature in cognitive representations of the self. Respondents were asked to choose out of six overlapping circles representing "nature" and "self", which picture best describes their relationship with the nature. The lowest connectedness to nature was attributed to respondents who selected the graphic with no overlap between circles and the highest connectedness was attributed to respondents who selected the graphic with 100% overlap between circles.

Individual practices towards biodiversity

We surveyed two specific individual behaviors: (i) the use of public green spaces and (ii) ecological management of private gardens. People have multiple reasons for visiting public green spaces and recent studies demonstrated that interacting with nature was not the only one [START_REF] Irvine | Understanding urban green space as a health resource: A qualitative comparison of visit motivation and derived effects among park users in Sheffield, UK[END_REF][START_REF] Shwartz | Virtual garden computer program for use in exploring the elements of biodiversity people want in cities[END_REF]. Therefore, we explored declared motivation of visiting green spaces as an indicator of individual practices that could be influenced due to the program implemented. The [motivations for visiting green spaces] was assessed using two related questions exploring: (1) the frequency of visits to public green spaces (never, rarely, occasionally, frequently, and very frequently) and ( 2) the motivations for those visits.

Respondents were asked to select three from a list of twelve possible answers. Answers were classified into four groups according to the strength of interaction with nature in the motivations of the respondents for visiting public green spaces. The final score for each respondent was computed by multiplying the answer of the two questions (see Appendix B).

The second practice was related to the ecological management of private gardens.

Private gardens evoke strong sense of place feelings [START_REF] Gross | Landscapes of the lifespan: Exploring accounts of own gardens and gardening[END_REF] and can generate meaningful connection with nature that could facilitate nature-related behaviors [START_REF] Goddard | Scaling up from gardens: biodiversity conservation in urban environments[END_REF]. Enhancing biodiversity in domestic gardens is one of the objectives of many gardens owners [START_REF] Davies | A national scale inventory of resource provision for biodiversity within domestic gardens[END_REF]). Thus, we explored nature-related practices conducted by the respondents in their private gardens [practices in private gardens] using two complementary questions (respondents that did not have any garden were excluded from this analysis): first, respondents were asked on the percentage of their garden surface that is kept un-managed (one point for 0%, two points for less than 5%, three points for 5%-15%, four points for 15%-40% and five points for more than 40%) (Following Cosquer 2012).

Second, respondents were asked to choose their main motivation in a 7-items list. We scored their answer as following: zero when the motivation mentioned was related to laziness (convenience / lack of maintenance), one for reasons related to fear of nature (not to attract wild animals, fear of insects) or for aesthetical reasons (not aesthetic), two for positive aesthetic reason and three for reasons related to environmental awareness (for pollinators and for wild fauna and flora). The final individual score concerning practices in the private garden was computed by multiplying these two items.

Data analysis

Seven separate linear models (LMs) were built to explore the influence of the biodiversityfriendly initiatives on employees' knowledge about biodiversity, perception of the state of local biodiversity and individual practices toward biodiversity. We first used five LMs to explore changes in biodiversity definition, ecosystem services, perception of main threats, local biodiversity perception and assessment before and after the initiatives (dummy variable named survey). All non-categorical variables were scaled to standardise the effect sizes by subtracting the mean from each value and dividing by the standard deviation. Sociodemographic variables and connectedness to nature were added to the models to account for their potential effect. However, since 39.2% of respondents did not mention their profession, this variable was excluded from all models. We then built two additional LMs to explore the effects of survey, biodiversity definition, ecosystem services, perception of main threats, local biodiversity perception, local biodiversity assessment and connectedness to nature on the two nature-related behaviours separately (motivations for visiting green spaces and practices in private gardens). In these models, we included main effects and interactions between survey and other explanatory variables (excluding socio-demographic variables), to exhaustively investigate the potential mechanisms underlying changes in behavior. We checked for the absence of collinearity between the independent variables (variance inflation factors values < 2; Zuur et al. 2007) and the impact of potential outliers using R packages AER [START_REF] Kleiber | Applied econometrics with R[END_REF] and car [START_REF] Fox | An R companion to applied regression, Second Edition[END_REF]. We tested the model's assumptions for normality and non-constant error in variance using Shapiro-Wilk and Breusch-Pagan tests (respectively).

For model selection, we used the model-averaging approach, i.e., linear regression with multimodel inference [START_REF] Burnham | Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach[END_REF] with the MuMIn package [START_REF] Barton | MuMIn: Multi-model inference[END_REF]. Following this method, all models are ranked on the basis of the Akaike's information criterion corrected for small sample size (AICc) [START_REF] Burnham | Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach[END_REF]. For variables from the most parsimonious models (i.e., ΔAICc<10), we averaged their estimates and standard errors weighted by each model's AICc [START_REF] Burnham | Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach[END_REF]. Model averaging yielded the post-probability (hereafter PP) of an explanatory variable affecting the dependant variable and took into account the number of times the term appeared as significant in the selected models. A rule of thumb for using these post-probabilities was to consider that PP >0.95, 0.95-0.5, and <0.5 corresponded roughly to the classical p-values <0.01, 0.01-0.05, >0.05 (see [START_REF] Shwartz | Virtual garden computer program for use in exploring the elements of biodiversity people want in cities[END_REF] and refs within for more details). Thus, we identified those variables for which PP>0.95 as being "strongly" supported by the model and variables for which PP>0.5 "moderately" supported.

Results

Response rates were similar before and after the initiatives: 37.25% of employees responded before (n=149) and 30% (n=119) after. Men represented 82.5% of the respondents, which is similar to the proportion of men among the power plants employees (i.e., 90%).

Respondents were distributed rather evenly among the three age groups with a small bias toward younger employees (<30 years old represented 35.3% of respondents when this age group represented 23.1% of the power plant employees). The second group (31-49 years old) represented 38.6% of the respondents when they represented 43.8% of employees and the older employees (50< years old) represented 25.0% of the respondents when they represented 33.1% of employees. We found no significant difference in socio-professional variables between the two surveys (before and after the power plant initiatives on biodiversity). The distributions of age groups (χ 2 = 0.45, 2df, p = 0.80), genders (χ 2 = 1.70, 1df, p = 0.19) and professions (χ 2 = 0.23, 2df, p = 0.89) were similar the two parts of the survey.

Impact of the initiatives on biodiversity knowledge and perception

The vast majority of respondents were familiar with the concept of biodiversity and ecosystem services and the initiatives did not influence degree of familiarity. Of the respondents 93% and 84% had already heard the word "biodiversity" and thought that the natural spaces and greenspaces can give "services" to the society (respectively), but only 44% and 25% gave a scientifically-relevant definition and relevant examples for services (respectively). However, this knowledge did not change significantly after the initiatives. We also found that men demonstrated lower knowledge compare to women (Table 1).

The majority of respondents were aware of the state of biodiversity in their local territory. Of the respondents 78% gave at least one item among the most threats on biodiversity based on the IUCN. Moreover, 90% of the respondents listed one out of the five expert-based biodiversity richest areas among the 13 proposed locations within the power plant. However, neither the perception of main threats nor the local biodiversity assessment within the power plant changed significantly after the initiatives (Table 1). On the other hand, the perception of biodiversity status within the power plant (local biodiversity perception) was higher after the initiatives (Table 1). Finally, individual connectedness to nature was positively and significantly correlated to most biodiversity knowledge and perception variables, excluding perception of main threats, for which we found that older employees were better aware of the main threats for biodiversity conservation in the town (Table 1).

Impact of biodiversity initiatives on individual practices towards biodiversity

Motivations for visiting green spaces were best explained by respondents' local biodiversity assessment and perception, the knowledge variables and by the interaction between survey and connectedness to nature (Table 2). In more details, respondents that visit public green spaces to interact with nature were: (1) those with higher level of biodiversity knowledge;

(2) those who assessed the biodiversity-rich locations in the power plant more accurately; and (3) those who perceived the state of biodiversity in the power plant to be poor. More interestingly, the initiatives seemed to have a complex influence on the declared motivation to visit public green spaces. In general, both before and after the initiatives, we recorded a positive relationship between connectedness to nature and participants' nature-related motivations for visiting public green spaces. However, this relationship was stronger after the initiatives (Fig. 1). Thus connectedness to nature had a stronger influence on the declared motivation after the initiatives (Fig. 1).

The variable Practices in the private gardens was explained by all three biodiversity perception variables, connectedness to nature and the survey dummy variable (Table 2).

Respondents who kept larger unmanaged area for biodiversity in their garden were the ones providing more accurate assessment of threats and biodiversity-rich locations in the power plant, more connected with nature and perceived the state of biodiversity in the power plant lower. Finally, respondents declared they keep more unmanaged area in their gardens for biodiversity oriented motivations after the initiatives than before.

Discussion

Conserving biodiversity in the places where people live and work was proposed as a mean to provide opportunities for meaningful interactions with the natural world [START_REF] Miller | Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience[END_REF][START_REF] Kowarik | Novel urban ecosystems, biodiversity, and conservation[END_REF][START_REF] Dunn | The pigeon paradox: dependence of global conservation on urban nature[END_REF]. In this study, we showed that the implementation of biodiversity-friendly initiatives in a workplace (here a power plant) by the management team has complex consequences on employees' knowledge, attitudes and declared behaviors. Contrary to our expectations, these initiatives did not have a significant impact on either employees' biodiversity assessment or their knowledge about biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, after the initiatives, employees seem to perceive correctly the better status of biodiversity in their workplace and the initiatives also seem to have affected employees' declared practices towards biodiversity in their private lives, in direct and indirect manners. Indeed, after the initiatives, respondents were more likely to leave unmanaged areas in their gardens for biodiversity purposes than before. In a more indirect way, initiatives may have influenced participants' connectedness to nature in a way that enhanced them to seek more interaction with nature when visiting public green spaces.

Thus, conserving biodiversity at work may mutually benefit conservation directly through preserving local biodiversity and indirectly by providing more opportunities for people to interact with nature and potentially strengthening people's relationship with it [START_REF] Miller | Conservation where people live and work[END_REF].

The biodiversity-friendly initiatives provided by the company demonstrated an interesting influence on individual declared behaviors. This result can be interpreted as an effect of the new social norms defined by the company when implementing new settings in everyday life of the employees [START_REF] Cialdini | A focus theory of normative conduct: recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places[END_REF]). These norms were both descriptive (flowering sites, meadows, photo exhibitions) and injunctive (education flyers explaining why the company was involved in this campaign). Following the theory of planned behavior [START_REF] Ajzen | The theory of planned behavior[END_REF], norms (defined as "perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior", p. 188) impact the intention to act (and eventually action) at the same level as attitudes (which themselves are linked with values and identity). Indeed, social norms have been shown to have a prominent effect on individual behaviors (e.g., [START_REF] Schultz | The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms[END_REF], even without being recognized as having a role by individuals who actually changed their behavior (e.g., [START_REF] Nolan | Normative social influence is underdetected[END_REF]). In our case, the fact that these new social norms were proposed by a personality with a high status (i.e. the employer) may have increased their effects on the employees (see [START_REF] Cialdini | Social influence: Compliance and conformity[END_REF]. Indeed, the importance of the source credibility in the trust and adhesion to a world vision is prominent in environmental communication [START_REF] Koger | The psychology of environmental problems. 3rd Edition[END_REF]. Our results propose further that social norms and individual attitudes are interrelated in individual actions. We showed that initiatives have encouraged individuals already connected to nature to be even more prone to set naturerelated behaviors (Fig. 1). Attitude and social norms are two out the three categories of motivation factors of individual actions in the theory of planned behavior [START_REF] Ajzen | The theory of planned behavior[END_REF]. We provided here new evidence that these factors can be related at the individual level.

Note that these small behavioral changes can further impact individual attitudes, following cognitive dissonance theory [START_REF] Festinger | A Theory of cognitive dissonance[END_REF]. Following this theory, when confronted with a disjunction between their behaviors and their attitudes, individuals tend to modify one of them in order to fill the gap between their thoughts and their actions [START_REF] Osbaldiston | Environmental sustainability and behavioral science: Meta-analysis of proenvironmental behavior experiments[END_REF]. Concerning environment, [START_REF] Thøgersen | A cognitive dissonance interpretation of consistencies and inconsistencies in environmentally responsible behavior[END_REF] proposed that small behavioral changes could affect environmental attitudes and become, therefore, more sustainable. We thus provided some evidence that conserving biodiversity in workplaces may mutually benefit conservation indirectly, by influencing and strengthening people's relationship to it. Furthermore, there is growing body of evidence that the interaction with nature could have several other benefits for people, such as improving wellbeing (e.g. [START_REF] Balmford | Trends in the state of nature and their implications for human well-being[END_REF][START_REF] Kaplan | The experience of nature: A psychological perspective[END_REF][START_REF] Ulrich | View through a window may influence recovery[END_REF]. Enhancing biodiversity in the workplace could therefore serve as a "win-win" solution that benefits both employees and biodiversity conservation (but see, [START_REF] Pett | Unpacking the people-biodiversity Paradox: A conceptual framework[END_REF] for the people-biodiversity paradox).

However, we should be aware of some limitations of our study and their potential implications. First, according to all questionnaire surveys, we assumed that declared behaviors reflect actual respondents' behaviors, ignoring potential discrepancies between declarations and facts. These potential biases could have been addressed by asking more questions to the respondents to add internal consistency to the data [START_REF] Yin | Case-study research[END_REF], or by observing actual behaviors. We also did not measure whether people notice the changes in biodiversity, or took part in the proposed activities, quantifying this aspect could have strengthened our understanding and conclusions. Other studies have demonstrated some contradicting results regarding lay people assessment of species diversity [START_REF] Fuller | Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity[END_REF][START_REF] Lindemann-Matthies | The influence of plant diversity on people's perception and aesthetic appreciation of grassland vegetation[END_REF][START_REF] Shwartz | Enhancing urban biodiversity and its influence on city-dwellers: An experiment[END_REF][START_REF] Pett | Unpacking the people-biodiversity Paradox: A conceptual framework[END_REF]). Although we did not ask people to estimate species richness or diversity, we did investigate their perception about the state of biodiversity within and in the near vicinity of the power plant. In accordance, we found that employees perceived that state of biodiversity was better after the initiatives, only in the power plant. These results correspond with the results of the ecological surveys conducted. Furthermore, we also found that the vast majority of the respondents (90%) identified specific biodiversity-rich areas in the same way as experts.

These results coincide with [START_REF] Bayne | Is a picture worth a thousand species? Evaluating human perception of biodiversity intactness using images of cumulative effects[END_REF] who demonstrated a positive and strong correlation between people's ranking of disturbance levels (aerial photos) in boreal forest areas and measures of disturbance and the diversity of forest specialist birds.

Alternatively and similarly to another study [START_REF] Kaplan | Employees' reactions to nearby nature at their workplace: The wild and the tame[END_REF], these results could also indicate a pro-environmental skewed study population, due to our obligation to introduce the research subject (i.e., biodiversity) in the request email sent to the employees. Thus, while respondents were representative of all the employees in age, gender and profession, the surveyed population could have been biased toward employees with pro-environmental profile. Indeed, the panel of respondents, who live near or within a Natura 2000 protected area, showed a relatively high knowledge and affinity to biodiversity compared to general French public. For instance, 93% of our respondents have heard the word "biodiversity" compared to 78% (2010) and 87% (2013) of general French public (Euro-Barometer, European Commission 2013). This potential bias can explain the high level of knowledge and correct assessment biodiversity rich areas, but also the lack of straightforward influence of the initiatives on employees' knowledge, perception and declared behavior. Moreover, we cannot determine whether the differences in the answers to the questionnaire after the initiatives were due to real changes in perception, or simply since employees were more aware of the project and that resulted in a response bias. More qualitative in-depth interviews could have shed light on this important bias. Future research should aim to compliment such quantitative approach with more qualitative interview that may help validate the results and better understand mechanisms (see [START_REF] Shwartz | Urban biodiversity, city-dwellers and conservation: How does an outdoor activity day affect the human-nature relationship?[END_REF].

Finally, all our results have been achieved in the French (and more broadly western cultural context). Yet, several studies underlined the variations in attitudes to nature across cultures (e.g. [START_REF] Buijs | No wilderness for immigrants: cultural differences in images of nature and landscape preferences[END_REF][START_REF] Corral-Verdugo | Environmental beliefs and endorsementof sustainable development principles in water conservation: toward a new Human Interdependence Paradigm Scale[END_REF] and cannot be generalized to other cultures without caution.

Conclusions

Although we cannot overrule the influence of these potential biases, our results are consistent with theories and models developed in conservation psychology to explain individual attitudes and behaviors toward the environment (see [START_REF] Stern | New environmental theories: toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior[END_REF][START_REF] Clayton | The Oxford handbook of environmental and conservation psychology[END_REF]. We showed that biodiversity-friendly initiatives provided by the company were not sufficient to have strong influence on people's knowledge and attitudes towards biodiversity, but did influence declared pro-environmental behaviors. However, we believe it is highly important to keep on exploring the social personal benefits, in terms of wellbeing of employees for instance. A recent multi-cultural study demonstrated the benefits both employers and employees can gain from enhancing green infrastructure in the workplace (Human Spaces 2015). For instance, when exploring the elements most wanted in the office, presence of nature (indoor plants) came second in importance (mentioned by 20% interviewees) after having natural light (44%). Therefore, a number of leading organizations are now providing employees opportunities to interact with nature at work such initiative can also enhance employees' creativity and happiness sat work (Human Spaces 2015). The context of our study was different than the study describe above (office vs. open power plant), but future research could benefit from further investigation of how enhancing nature in different type of workplaces could help aligning the agendas of employers, employees and conservation directly (protecting biodiversity) and indirectly (through enhancing the connection between people and nature). Our results present a new call for employers to take into account the environments they offer to their employees, including green spaces, and provide elements for further discussion on the importance of Biophilia in the workplace. Zuur, A., Ieno, E. N., & Smith, G. M. (2007). Analysing ecological data. Springer Science & Business Media.

Figure 1:

The significant interaction between employees' motivations for visiting public green spaces and connectedness to nature before (blue) and after (dashed red) the implementation of the biodiversity initiatives in the power plant. The bands indicate the confidence intervals and the ticks the density of the data (respondents).

Acknowledgments

We thank all the respondents for their time that enabled the realization of this study. We are grateful to EDF Cordemais for providing access to the industrial site. We thank Agathe Le Bocq and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We would also like to thank Denis Florenty and the service in charge of communication, especially Edith Fiolleau, for their help and their support in the implementation of the survey. We are grateful to Alix Cosquer for her help with the questionnaire development. This study was supported by EDF company. We certify that the funding source had no influence on the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data.

Table 1:

Results of four linear models exploring knowledge (biodiversity definition and ecosystem services) and perception (main threats, local biodiversity perception and assessment) before and after the implementation of the biodiversity initiatives in the power plant, while accounting for three profile variables (gender, age and connectedness to nature). Estimated average coefficients ± S.E. are presented for all variables. Important (PP>0.95) and moderately important (0.5<PP<0.94) variables are flagged with * or ** respectively and PP is presented in parentheses. a. "Do you visit green spaces and natural areas?" Multiple-choice closed-ended coded 1 to 5: never, rarely, occasionally, frequently, and very frequently b. "Why ?" to evaluate the motivation for visiting public greenspaces Respondents were asked to select maximum three out a list of twelve possible answers and answers were classified into five groups according to the strength of interaction with nature in the motivation of the respondents for visiting green spaces. We kept the maximum scores for each respondent. .

Variables

Possible answers

Reason was linked to nature The final score for each respondent was computed by multiplying the answers of the two questions (a. and b.). For example, if a respondent choose "never" because "The parks are too crowded" and "Walking a pet", for this question, the final score is: 1 x 2 = 2


Katarina Radišić

Arthur Vidard

Claire Lauvernet

Prise en compte d'incertitudes externes dans l'estimation de paramètres d'un modèle de transfert d'eau et de pesticides à l'échelle du bassin versant

come

Consideration of external uncertainties in the estimation of parameters of a water and pesticide transfer model at the watershed scale

Katarina Radišić, Claire Lauvernet, Arthur Vidard

Methods

Case study Results Conclusion

Context : The PESHMELBA model Complex model with many parameters -> needs to be calibrated. Methods: Definition of robust estimators

1. θ * mean = argmin θ (E U [J(θ, U)], 2. θ * variance = argmin θ (Var U [J(θ, U)],
Other definition of robustness exist.

The one we choose depends on our goal.

No matter the robustness we choose, they will all be computationally expensive.

Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15

Methods: Definition of robust estimators

1. θ * mean = argmin θ (E U [J(θ, U)], 2. θ * variance = argmin θ (Var U [J(θ, U)],
Other definition of robustness exist.

The one we choose depends on our goal.

No matter the robustness we choose, they will all be computationally expensive. Case study: Observations, cost function and rain perturbations

J(θ, u) = (M(θ, u) -ytrue) 2 = 25 cell i =1 (M(θ, u)| cell i -ytrue| cell i ) 2 ytrue = M(θtrue, utrue) ∈ R 25
Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 9/15 Results: Calibration with u true vs u false

Figure : Figure :

 :: Figure: The catchment of assembled parcels, their vertical decomposition, and the main processes of water and pesticide transfer in PESHMELBA, (Rouzies et al., 2019) doi : 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.060, image credit E. Rouzies

Figure :

 : Figure: Minimizers when u = utrue in red and when u = u false in blue.

Table of contents

 of

Introduction

Methods

Case study

Results

Conclusion

Katarina Radišić

Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 4/15

Table of contents

 of

	Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Introduction: From classical to robust calibration
	Katarina Radišić Katarina Radišić Katarina Radišić Katarina Radišić Katarina Radišić	Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023	5/15 5/15 5/15 5/15 5/15

Introduction Methods Case study Results Conclusion Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 4/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15 Introduction: From classical to robust calibration Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15

Introduction: From classical to robust calibration

All hydrological model suffer from this. Here, only rain uncertainties will be considered.

Katarina Radišić

Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15

Introduction: From classical to robust calibration

All hydrological model suffer from this. Here, only rain uncertainties will be considered.

Katarina Radišić

Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15

Introduction: From classical to robust calibration

All hydrological model suffer from this. Here, only rain uncertainties will be considered.

Katarina Radišić

Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 5/15

Table of contents

 of

	Introduction
	Methods
	Case study
	Results
	Conclusion
	Katarina Radišić	Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023	5/15

Methods: Definition of robust estimators Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15 Methods: Definition of robust estimators Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15 Methods: Definition of robust estimators Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15 Methods: Definition of robust estimators 1. θ * mean = argmin θ (E U [J(θ, U)], Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15 Methods: Definition of robust estimators 1. θ * mean = argmin θ (E U [J(θ, U)], 2. θ * variance = argmin θ (Var U [J(θ, U)], Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15

Table of contents

 of Calibrate parameters of parcel 4. -Observations on parcel 4. -Our observations are moisture profiles of the soil column after 100 hours of rain.

	Case study: Observations, cost function and rain perturbations
	Introduction
	We calibrate only two parameters :
	Methods 1. the water content in the soil at saturation (thetas10)
	2. the parameter governing Van Genuchten infiltration equation (mn10)
	Case study
	Results
	Conclusion
	Katarina Radišić	Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023	7/15

Katarina Radišić

Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 6/15

Case study: PESHMELBA virtual catchment Figure: Rouzies et al. 2023 https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-425 • 3 soil types • 2 vegetation types • 4 soil horizons for each soil type • 9 soil parameters for each horizon -We focus on parcel 4. -thetas 10 ∼ N (0.3160, 0.0316 2 ), mn 10 ∼ N (0.1791, 0.0179 2 ), θ true = (0.164, 0.292). Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 8/15

Table of contents

 of

	Introduction
	Methods
	Case study
	Results
	Conclusion
	Katarina Radišić	Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023	9/15

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 of

		Pluies spatialisées
	Introduction
	Methods
	Case study
	Results
	Conclusion
	Katarina Radišić	Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023	13/15

Figure: Simulations de champs de pluie provenant de SAMPO, (Leblois and Creutin, 2013) doi : 10.1002/wrcr.20190. Katarina Radišić Systèmes Agricoles Eau, 9 février 2023 15/15

Suite :

• Différentes définitions de robustesse

• Différentes perturbations de pluie

• Le coût numérique de PESHMELBA -> metamodèles

• passage à plusieurs paramètres, plusieurs parcelles


Adriana Şerban
email: adriana.serban@univ-montp3.fr

Translation as a Winged Magic Horse: Reflections on "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte"

Keywords: translation, animal, transportation, horse, fairy tale, magic, Petre Ispirescu, Romanian traduction, animal, transport, cheval, conte de fées, magie, Petre Ispirescu, roumain

The fairy tale "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte" was collected from the folklore in the 19th century by Petre Ispirescu, the Romanian equivalent of the brothers Grimm. It has since been translated into English and other languages several times, and it narrates the adventures of a prince whose quest is to find eternal youth and everlasting life. Prince Handsome is guided by a winged magic horse, at the same time his advisor and means of transportation. I examine aspects of the interaction between the two characters in the original and two English translations of the story and argue that the horse is a psychopomp and translator of sorts, who assists his human companion in crossing boundaries and undergoing transformation.

Introduction

In this paper, I propose to combine a reflection about the nature of translation with considerations about the way in which a Romanian fairy tale about a prince and his horse-or perhaps a horse and his prince-has been translated into English. In the original language, the title of this fairy tale is "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte" [Youth without old age and life without death], and the text was collected from oral folklore in the 19th century by Petre Ispirescu, the Romanian equivalent of the brothers Grimm. Several translations exist in English and other languages, but I focus on two attempts, namely the translation by Ana Cartianu and published in 1979 under the title "Youth Everlasting and Life without End", targeting a child audience, and the 2000 retranslation by Adrian Solomon entitled "Eternal Life and Everlasting Youth", which appeared in Plural, the journal of the Romanian Cultural Foundation.

Non-human animals are a prominent presence in this fairy tale and they are all endowed with supernatural powers, with one possible exception: the hare whose pursuit causes the prince to inadvertently cross the boundary separating eternal youth and life back into the real world by accessing memories of his past and, especially, of his parents, in other words of his origins. Most humans in the story have no such abilities, except for the fairy sisters who welcome the prince and the horse to their castle, where the prince seems to have found what he had been looking for. It is not within the scope of my contribution to examine definitions of magic and the supernatural. Suffice it to say it seems plausible that perceptions of something, or someone, as magic, may be linked to difficulties to explain a phenomenon in terms which make sense to the person or community, in view of the framework of interpretation they are able to apply. Also, the question of difference, of otherness, is likely to play a part.

In "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte", then, the main (non-magic) human, Prince Handsome, needs a non-human animal presented as pertaining to the realm of magic, the horse, if he is to stand a chance to succeed in his quest. And succeed he does-while he listens to the horse. Should he have, could he have, continued to remain in that partnership?

The horse is not named in the story, and nor is the prince, considering that 'Prince Handsome' of 'Prince Charming' (Fat-Frumos, in Romanian) is not truly anyone's name but helps situate the character in a line of fairy tale princes and orients the expectations of the audience. The fact that the horse is winged situates him as well (I will return to the question of the pronoun) in a lineage of flying horses of which the most famous one, in Western civilisation, is Pegasus. Pegasus, who in Greek mythology is the son of the god Poseidon and of the gorgon Medusa, is usually represented as pure white, and so is the horse in "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte", although his colour is not mentioned in the fairy tale, only the fact that he has four wings. The pronoun used in the Romanian is masculine, but this does not necessarily mean the horse is a stallion rather than a mare: in the original language, the word for 'horse', cal, is masculine.

The horse in Ispirescu's fairy tale is able to use human language and has wisdom and experience, acting as an advisor and guide to the prince. He takes the prince to a place where there is only life and youth (at the cost of amnesia); upon the young man insistence, he transports the latter back to where the journey first started in terms of space but not of time-which entails death. In a way, the flying horse is a psychopomp who, after guiding the human character through a major transition in his life, i.e. between adolescence (Prince Handsome is fifteen when they first meet) and adulthood, now reluctantly but competently escorts him into old age and death. In the terms of analytical psychology, the horse can be seen as assisting the prince in the process of accessing his own unconscious. Importantly, in Greek mythology the role of conducting souls to the underworld is ascribed to Hermes, divine messenger, god of communication and of commerce, go-between, quickwitted trickster and god of thieves, mediator between the human and the divine realms, guide of the sleeping to the realm of dreams, god of travellers-and of translators and interpreters. Translators also have a patron saint, Hieronymus of Stridon, most commonly known as Saint Jerome, translator of the Old and New Testaments into Latin. Jerome is almost invariably represented with an animal, a lion.

Translation, transportation, afterlife

Translation is omnipresent, we are literally surrounded by it, although part of the time we may not even realise its presence since, as has been pointed out time and again, invisibility (the term is not without connotations of magic) seems to be a precondition for successful translation. Moreover, translation and communication are so intricately intertwined that it makes sense to claim that every act of translation is an act of (interpersonal) communication and that, conversely, every act of communication has a form of translation at its core. But defining what translation is and does can never be a straightforward task. The Latin etymology of the word suggests an association with travel: translatio is, quite literally, carrying or bearing across. In other words, translation is a journey and, at times a quest. The imagery of roads, paths, ways, border crossings and of building bridges for the benefit of others is part of how we conceptualise translation, and so is the vocabulary of fidelity, trustworthiness, loyalty. Of movement as well: witness to this is Friedrich Schleiermacher's famous metaphor (1813), i.e. bringing the reader to the author or the reverse, although, as [START_REF] Malmkjaer | Schleiermacher's Metaphor[END_REF] pointed out, this particular metaphor of movement, which is also a dichotomy, is problematic at least in the sense that it suggests it is only possible to move one or the other of the parties involved but not both, making them meet in the middle.

Translation renews the life of the translated works, making them available across time, space, languages and cultures to audiences which would not have otherwise had access to the texts in their languages of origin (there is a limit to the number of languages even the most talented learner is able to read it, within one lifespan). In "The Task of the Translator" ([1923] 1996), Walter Benjamin used the word Fortleben-survival or, more precisely, continued life. Prolonged life and, indeed, eternal life, is the object of the prince's pursuit in "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte", along with the promise of youth which, besides being one of humanity's oldest quests, entails a refusal to conform to the natural order of things: everything that is born must die. There is a noble, tragic dimension in the prince's inability to accept his human condition and decision to go beyond the prescribed limits; at the same time, since youth and everlasting life are presented in this story as petrified states of being, there is something profoundly disturbing about one's desire to make time stop, to refuse the transformation it brings. Petre Ispirescu's fairy tale is characterised by a peculiar treatment of the theme of the Hero and of the Hero's Journey. According to Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces ([1949] 2008), the Hero is usually expected to leave the known world for the unknown, to endure hardship and to fight for a just cause, be transformed, and finally attain the object of his or her quest. In this story, Prince Handsome does find what he was looking for, but loses it, and finally dies a lonely, seemingly meaningless death.

The main character in the fairy tale is likely to be identified as the prince, but it could also be horse: the two always appear together once the quest has started, except at the very end, when Prince Handsome chooses not to listen to the horse's advice. Throughout their journey together, the winged horse has been the prince's means of transportation-of trans-lation-as well as his advisor and only friend.

Illustration 1: Prince Handsome and the horse.

Writing down stories collected from the folklore involves a process of re-writing which is in a sense a translation act in itself. This is why it seems plausible to claim that, before undergoing translation from Romanian into English (and other languages), "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte" was first trans-lated from oral to written text, from one context to another within its country or origin, and also between very different audiences. Petre Ispirescu lived in the 19th century, which makes him a contemporary of Hans Christian Andersen and a near contemporary of the brothers Grimm. Born into a modest family, he started working early and was not in a position to complete his education. He rose from type-setter to director of a printing house. In 1862, Ispirescu published a collection of six fairy tales collected from the Romanian folklore, among which "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără moarte"; ten years later he published a second volume of folk tales. His most important work, Legende sau basmele românilor [Legends or the tales of the Romanians] appeared in 1882 and subsequently went through numerous reprints.

"Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte" is a striking traditional fairy tale in that it flouts genre conventions (e.g. the expected happy ending, the neat distinction between good and of evil) and leaves the reader wondering-as perhaps he or she really should-about the meaning of it all. In the story, a childless imperial couple struggles to conceive and they do, but are warned the boy-Prince Handsome-will not bring them joy (although, in the first years of his life, he does). The birth is difficult because the baby cries in his mother's womb and the empress cannot give birth. The desperate future father, now in imminent danger of remaining without an heir and losing his wife as well, starts promising the unborn child all the wonders in the world, everything he can think of that is in his power to provide, but to no avail. Eventually, he promises eternal youth and everlasting life; the prince stops crying and comes into the world. He is clever and handsome but increasingly melancholic; the emperor may have forgotten the promise he had made but his son certainly did not. Upon the father's admission that he is unable to fulfil his pledge, the young man undertakes a quest nobody else believes in-more precisely, no other human character in the story. It is not the prince's ability as such that his own parents and courtiers and the entire kingdom question, but the very existence or possibility of what he is looking for. After a perilous journey he would clearly not have been able to make without the horse, Prince Charming reaches a castle surrounded by forests and guarded by ferocious beasts. It is in that remote, secluded place that he finds youth without old age and life without death. Three fairies live there, and the prince marries one of them. Centuries go by, but he doesn't know that. One day, while he is hunting, he inadvertently crosses a forbidden boundary the fairies had warned him about. Still unaware of the lapse of time since his arrival at the castle, the prince remembers his parents and longs to see them again. Unable to contain his yearning or to understand it can never be fulfilled-the emperor and the empress are long dead-he secures the horse's agreement to take him back to his parents' palace, which he finds in ruins and empty, except for one presence: his own death, waiting for him.

The first of the two English translations which make the object of this study was published in 1979: the large-size format of the book and the numerous illustrations suggest that Ana Cartianu targeted a child audience. Over twenty years later, in 2000, the Romanian Cultural Foundation in Bucharest published a special issue of its English-language journal Plural which included fairy tales and other stories from the Romanian folklore, accompanied by brief scholarly introductions. Two stories by Petre Ispirescu featured in this volume, one of them "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte" in a new translation by Adrian Solomon.

References to non-human animals as well as to insects appear already in the opening paragraph of the fairy tale: bears, wolves, lambs, flies and fleas, as can be seen in bold in Excerpt 1 (the abbreviation ST stands for 'source text'; TT1 is 'target text 1', Cartianu's 1979 translation; TT2 means 'target text 2', the 2000 translation by Solomon).

EXCERPT 1: The incipit. ST: A fost odată ca niciodată; că de n-ar fi, nu s-ar mai povesti; de când făcea plopşorul pere şi răchita micşunele; de când se băteau urşii în coade; de când se luau de gât lupii cu mieii de se sărutau, înfrăţindu-se; de când se potcovea puricele la un picior cu nouăzeci şi nouă de oca de fier şi s-arunca în slava cerului de ne aducea poveşti; De când se scria musca pe perete. Mai mincinos cine nu crede. TT1: This story happened-once upon a time-in the days when the poplar tree bore pears and the willow tree flowered into violets. Bears fought each other twisting their long tails in tight knots, and wolves and lambs would frolic in the spring sunshine. A flea would shoe one tiny foot with ninety nine iron weights of three pounds each and soar up to the skies to bring us fairy tales. The fly would write on the wall. The bigger liar is he who doesn't trust me at all. TT2: Once upon a time, in the olden clays, when two Sundays came together and bears fought with their tails; when wolves and lambs hugged and kissed each other like brothers; when fleas wore iron horseshoes a dozen stone each and leapt high in the sky to bring people tales therefrom; when flies would write on the walls; he who doubts our story is the biggest among liars! The richness of the excerpt above is such that it could easily, in itself, supply material for a lengthy discussion of linguistic and cultural transfer in translation, as well as the vexed question of the difference (if any) between translation proper and adaptation. For our purposes, however, suffice it to say that the bears, wolves, lambs, fleas and flies behave in an unusual way: the story takes place at an indefinite time, in an unknown realm where anything is possible-except for humans to possess magical powers, or to live forever young.

The prince, the horse, the journey

Differences or 'shifts' between an initial text and its translations are inevitable-after all, a translation is not the source text, although it is generally seen as equivalent. A large number of considerations shape decisions about how to translate (and whether to translate at all), and some of the factors involved may not even be conscious. Clearly, translating is not photocopying a text from one language into another but a subjective process of selecting among a set of alternatives which seem possible, plausible, appropriate. In view of the translator's restricted but nevertheless real freedom, occurrences in texts become relevant by virtue of other choices which could have been made but were discarded, or perhaps not considered. In Şerban (2007) I examined some of the ways in which the two translators, Ana Cartianu and Adrian Solomon, accommodate different audiences, including through translation strategies such as foreignisation, domestication, normalisation, explicitation. Here, I revisit the fairy tale and its two translations in an attempt to reveal aspects of the relationship between the main human and the most important non-human animal in the story. The examples which follow are representative of their interaction at key moments in the narrative.

The prince in "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte" secures the horse's assistance through an initial act of unquestioning obedience, as can be seen below.

EXCERPT 2: The first encounter. ST: Apoi, Făt-Frumos se duse în grajdurile împărăteşti unde erau cei mai frumoşi armăsari din toată împărăţia, ca să-şi aleagă unul; dar, cum punea mâna şi apuca pe câte unul de coadă, îi trântea, şi astfel toţi caii căzură. În sfârşit, tocmai când era să iasă, îşi mai aruncă ochii o dată prin grajd şi, zărind într-un colţ un cal răpciugos şi bubos şi slab, se duce şi la dânsul; iar când puse mâna pe coada lui, el îşi întoarse capul şi zise: […] Ca să ajungi la dorinţa ta, trebuie să ceri de la tată-tău paloşul, suliţa, arcul, tolba cu săgeţile şi hainele ce le purta el când era flăcău; iar pe mine să mă îngrijeşti cu însăţi mâna ta şase săptămâni şi orzul să mi-l dai fiert în lapte. TT1: Prince Handsome went to the royal stables to choose a fine horse for his travels. First one, then another was brought out for him to see, but as soon as he grabbed one by the reins, it would fall down. Soon all the horses lay on the ground and the stables appeared empty. Glancing around, Prince Handsome saw an old horse in the corner. It was very thin, full of sores and looked a mere bag of bones, but, when he took it by the mane, the horse turned his heard and said, […] "In order to gain your quest, you must ask your father to give you the sword, lance, bow, quiver and the arrowsnot forgetting the armourhe used as a young man. For six weeks you must tend to me yourself, giving me barley which you have boiled in milk." TT2: Prince Charming went to the royal stables to see the finest stallions in the kingdom and pick one for himself; but as soon as he gripped one by the tail, the horse would fall to the ground, and this happened to all of them, down to the last one. Eventually, when he was about to leave, he cast a final glance around the stable, and in a corner he saw a jaded, glanderous horse full of swellings; he went to check that horse too, and when he grabbed his tail, the horse turned his head and said: […] "To fulfil your wish, you'll have to ask your father first to give you the sword, the spear, the bow, the arrow quiver, and the clothes he used to wear as a young man; as for me, six weeks from now on you will have to look after me all by yourself, and feed me on barley boiled in milk."

Finding of a means of transportation is presented as a selection process (the horses' strength is tested by Prince Handsome) which becomes an act of recognition, an epiphany of sorts, made possible by the prince's willingness to envisage the sick horse as a possible road companion. The horse immediately shows his ability to speak to humans, as well as a knowledge of how the prince needs to prepare for the journey. There is also something he asks for himself, and the young man complies (although it is the horse who calls him stapâne [master], and explicitly acknowledges his right to give orders); the prospect of starting his quest with this particular horse defies all logic, in view of the animal's problematic health. The horse then reveals more of his magic.

EXCERPT 3: The transformation. ST: Când auzi calul de la Făt-Frumos că hainele şi armele sunt bine curăţate şi pregătite, odată se scutură şi el, şi toate bubele şi răpciuga căzură de pe dânsul şi rămase întocmai cum îl fătase mă-sa, un cal gras, trupeş şi cu patru aripi; văzându-l Făt-Frumos astfel, îi zise: ─ De azi în trei zile plecăm. ─ Să trăieşti, stăpâne; sunt gata chiar azi, de porunceşti, îi răspunse calul. TT1: Prince Handsome told the horse he could begin his travel. The old horse shook himself, raised his head and gave a fine neigh, at the same time all the sores fell from his sides and he appeared a strong shapely horse with four wings. "In three days we are off," said Prince Handsome looking at him with admiration as he groomed the glossy coat. "Bless you, master," said the horse, "I am ready now if you want to go." TT2: When Prince Charming told the horse that the arms and the clothes were well cleaned and at the ready, the horse shook off all the carbuncles and swellings in a jiffy, and emerged like his mother had foaled him: a fleshy, sturdy, four-winged stallion. Prince Charming looked at him in awe, then said: "Three days from now we're leaving." "God give you long life, my lord! I'm ready to go right away, if you so wish," the horse replied.

In the original text, the emphasis is on the horse hearing from the prince that everything is ready for the journey, rather than on the prince communicating this information. The difference may be small, but it gives more prominence to the prince's role which, in this story, is remarkably passive by comparison with that of the horse.

There are in the fairy tale numerous instances of the horse warning the prince of imminent danger and telling him what to do ("Să ştii, stăpâne, că aici suntem pe moşia unei Gheonoaie dară să nu te sperii, ci să fii gata cu arcul ca să o săgetezi, iar paloşul şi suliţa să le ţii la îndemână, ca să te slujeşti cu dânsele când va fi de trebuinţă"; "Ţine-te, stăpâne, gata, că iată se apropie Gheonoaia"; "Să ne odihnim puţin, stăpâne, şi mâine dis-de-dimineaţă să fim gata"; "Fii gata, stăpâne, că iată se apropie zgripsoroaica de Scorpie"). At times, the prince asks questions, which the horse never fails to answer ("Atunci el întrebă pe cal: ─ De ce este iarba pârlită? Şi calul îi răspunse […]"). The harmonious, successful partnership between the two is described several times: "Se deteră spre odihnă; dar pândea când unul când altul"; "iar calul se urcă ca vântul până cam dasupra ei şi Făt-Frumos îi luă un picior cu săgeata"; "se duseră, se duseră şi iară se mai duseră"; "Aicea stătură ei să se odihnească"; "După ce se odihniră vreo două zile, se pregătiră iarăşi". But, essentially, the horse is portrayed as far superior in terms of wisdom, experience and initiative.

EXCERPT 4: The horse as advisor and guide. ST: Trecurăm cum trecurăm până aci, stăpâne; mai avem un hop: avem să dăm peste o primejdie mare; şi, dacă ne-o ajuta Dumnezeu să scăpăm şi de dânsa, apoi suntem voinici. Mai-nainte de aci este palatul unde locuieşte Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte. Această casă este înconjurată cu o pădure deasă şi înaltă, unde stau toate fiarele cele mai sălbatice din lume; ziua şi noaptea păzesc cu neadormire şi sunt multe foarte; cu dânsele nu este chip de a te bate; şi ca să trecem prin pădure e peste poate; noi însă să ne silim, dac-om putea, să sărim pe deasupra. TT1: "Master," said the horse, "we have done well so far, but there is one more trouble ahead. Great danger lies before us, but, with God's help, we shall win through." "What is this danger?" asked the prince. "A little way ahead there is a castle where lives youth everlasting and life without endyour quest. The place is surrounded by a thick tall forest, full of the most savage beasts ever found in the whole world. Day and night they watch, never sleeping one wink, and their number is great. Fighting them is out of the question and crossing the forest is more than man can accomplish. The best plan is to take a big jump over the forest." TT2: So far so good, my lord; there is only one hurdle left; great danger lies ahead; God willing, we're going to overcome it, and prevail. Before us is the palace of Eternal Life and Everlasting Youth. That edifice is surrounded by a thick, tall wood harboring the wildest beasts in the whole world; they are countless, and they watch sleeplessly, night and day; there is no way you can fight them, and going across the wood is beyond our powers; on the contrary, we must try to fly over it.

Having almost reached his destination, the prince is informed by his horse-and it is only at this point the topic is brought up in the story-that youth everlasting and life without end can be found in a castle surrounded by thick forest whose trees are tall, and that the most savage beasts or, in other words, animals, stand guard. Crossing these woods on foot is out of the question, peste poate [beyond possible], in Solomon's translation "beyond our powers", whereas in Cartianu's translation the task is "more than man can accomplish" which, again, gives priority to the young man's otherwise relatively modest role (for a discussion of the normalisation of Prince Handsome's image, see Şerban 2007). After all, even some of the other characters in the fairy tale and, most notably, the enemies the team have prevailed over, acknowledge the obvious fact that, without his horse, Prince Handsome would stand no chance ("Să-ţi trăiască calul, Făt-Frumos, îi mai zise ea, ca un năzdrăvan ce este, căci de nu era el, te mâncam fript"; "Cu calul care îl ai şi cu vitejia ta, crez că ai să izbuteşti").

The dangers the two travellers have faced up to this point come from beasts (Gheonoaia and Scorpia) who were formerly human but changed their nature because of a curse they appear to have deserved; the third obstacle is also represented by animals: the wild inhabitants of the forest who are not, however, a danger to the mistresses of the place, whom they appear to serve.

EXCERPT 5: The animals guarding the castle. ST: Stăpâne, mai zise calul, acum e timpul când se dă de mâncare fiarălor pădurei şi sunt adunate toate în curte; să trecem. TT1: "Master, now is the time when the beasts of the forest are being fed and they are being fed and they are all gathered in the courtyard. Let us go through." TT2: "My lord," the horse added, "now is the time when they feed all the animals in the yard. Let's go!"

The horse knows the road but also, as can be seen in Excerpt 5, the place. The fact that he suggests they fly over the forest (see Excerpt 4 and also Excerpt 6 below) rather than guide the prince through it raises questions about the nature of this third test which should not be confronted but, rather, circumvented; it is also puzzling to consider that, for a winged horse, even flying over this particular forest-or transporting his human companion?-should be problematic. At any rate, Prince Charming approves, as he invariably does when the horse speaks; he also invokes God's help.

EXCERPT 6: The crossing. ST: Stăpâne, strânge chinga cât poţi de mult, şi, încălecând, să te ţii bine şi în scări, şi de coama mea; picioarele să le ţii lipite pe lângă supţioara mea, ca să nu mă zăticneşti în zborul meu. TT1: Make the saddle-girth as tight as you can, master. Once in the saddle, hold fast, your feet in your stirrups, cling to my mane and keep your legs close to mine, out of the way when I soar upwards. TT2: My lord, tighten the girth as fast as you can, and when you mount, hold on steady in the stirrups, and cling firmly to my mane; and keep your legs close to my flanks, so you won't hamper my flight.

The prince's role is to make sure he stays in the saddle and that he does not hinder the horse's attempt. In the original, the horse rehearses the flight ("Se urcă, făcu probă, şi într-un minut fu aproape de pădure"); the three verbs [went up, made, was] are in the singular. There is no rehearsal in Cartianu's translation, whereas Solomon preserves it but uses a plural ("they made a trial"). The horse was right to say this was the time of the day when the animals in the forest were fed, but the immediate implication is that they are all gathered outside the castle. The bond between the fairy feeding themin Romanian, pui means 'chicken' but is also used as a term of endearment, in the sense of 'little one', 'darling'-is made explicit, as is the fact that the otherwise ferocious beasts obey her. In the Romanian text, the lady of the castle (one of three sisters) saves Prince Handsome's life by sending the savage beasts back into the woods, which is something Cartianu glosses over, in her translation. It certainly is most unusual for a young and beautiful woman to rescue the hero rather than the other way round, in a traditional fairy tale.

EXCERPT 7: The arrival. ST: Se urcară în sus şi văzură palatul strălucind astfel, de la soare te puteai uita, dar la dânsul ba. Trecură pe dasupra pădurii şi, tocmai când erau să se lase în jos la scara palatului, d-abia, d-abia atinse cu piciorul vârful unui copac şi dodată toată pădurea se puse în mişcare; urlau dobitoacele, de ţi se făcea părul măciucă pe cap. Se grăbiră de se lăsară în jos; şi de nu era doamna palatului afară, dând demâncare puilor ei (căci aşa numea ea lighioanele din pădure), îi prăpădea negreşit. TT1: Over the forest they flew, and, just as they were about to descend on the steps of the castle, the horse scarcely touched the top of a tree, when the whole forest burst into life: the beasts howled and growled so that our heroes' hair stood on end. Quickly the two travellers landed in the courtyard where the lady of the castle was feeding her chickens. Seeing them, she sent the beasts back to the forest and welcomed the visitors. TT2: They flew high and saw the palace: it shone brighter than the sun. They soared above the wood, and just when they were about to touch down by the palace front stairs, he barely brushed the top of a tree with his foot, and hell broke loose: all the beasts in the wood were howling so ferociously that it would make one's hair stand on end. They hurried down, and indeed they would have met with their death, hadn't the lady of the palace been in the yard, feeding her cubs-for that was what she called the wild beasts in the wood.

"Opri pe dobitoace, le îmblânzi şi le trimise la locul lor" [She stopped the animals, tamed them and sent them to their place] is what the fairy does in Petre Ispirescu's tale, but what should the reader understand by "their place"? The forest, perhaps, or should this be understood in terms of the conventional hierarchy between human and non-human animals?

After their arrival at the castle, "[c]alului îi dete drumul să pască pe unde va voi dânsul; pe urmă îi făcură cunoscuţi tuturor lighioanelor, de puteau umbla în tihnă prin pădure": the prince lets the horse free to graze wherever he want to, and the fairies introduce both of them to the animals. At this point, in her translation, Cartianu introduces one of her many additions which raise the question of whether her rendering can be called a 'translation': the beasts "were brought to be stroked, and Prince Handsome was amazed at their gentleness. Could they be the same?"

The partnership between the prince and the horse dissolves because the reason for which it was formed no longer exists; this is not stated explicitly in the narrative, but is implied in more ways than one. Thus, he is on his own the day he unintentionally crosses into Valea Plângerii, the Valley of Weeping.

to go home, to go back-or both, in which case home (his only true home, or his home at this stage in his life?) is his mortal, human nature his imperial parents bequeathed him?

In the Romanian text, the horse imposes his conditions and the prince accepts them. Cartianu reframes the interaction as a question/permission the horse asks. She later rewrites the text along similar lines to give the prince a semblance of choice in the hour of his death. One last, time, the prince and the horse prepare for departure ("[s]e pregătiră de plecare"). Only one will return.

EXCERPT 10: The journey back. ST: Ajunseră în locurile unde era moşia Scorpiei; acolo găsiră oraşe; pădurile se schimbaseră în câmpii; întrebă pre unii şi pre alţii despre Scorpie şi locuinţa ei; dar îi răspunseră că bunii lor auziseră de la străbunii lor povestindu-se de asemenea fleacuri. TT1: They reached the lands that had been the Scorpion's and found towns, the forests had been turned into fields. When the prince asked what had happened to the Scorpion, he was told their great-grandparents had believed in such foolishness. TT2: They reached the Shrew's former estate; there they found cities; the woods had changed into pastures; he asked every person he met about the Shrew and her abode; but they answered that their grandparents had heard their great-grandparents talking such nonsense.

Notice how, in Excerpt 10 above, the plural (ajunseră, găsiră [they reached, they found]) transforms into singular. Only the prince needs to ask questions; the horse knows the answers, but it is not towards him that Prince Handsome turns, as he once used to. Instead, it is his fellow humans he interrogates, and the information they are able to supply, from their limited point of view, increases the prince's confusion ("Nu se putea domiri el" [He could not understand]). The singular is also used to narrate the arrival: "În cele mai de pe urmă, ajunse la palaturile în care se născuse" [At long last, he reached the palaces where he had been born]. The prince can still opt to travel back, but chooses to linger among the ruins. As he says goodbye to the horse, he expresses the irrational hope he might be able to follow him soon, back to the fairies' castle.

EXCERPT 11: The farewell. ST: Cum se dete jos, calul îi sărută mâna şi îi zise: ─ Rămâi sănătos, stăpâne, că eu mă întorc de unde am plecat. Dacă pofteşti să mergi şi d-ta, încalecă îndată şi aidem! ─ Du-te sănătos, că şi eu nădăjduiesc să mă întorc peste curând. Calul plecă ca săgeata de iute. TT1: As soon as he dismounted, the horse nuzzled him and said, "Farewell, master, for I am going back to whence I came. If you will come, just vault into the saddle and let us go!" "Nay, farewell, my old friend," said Prince Handsome, "I hope to return home soon." Swift as an arrow, the horse was gone. TT2: As he dismounted, his horse kissed his hand and said: "Farewell, my lord, I'm going back where I came from. If you wish to come along, get up on me, and let us be gone." "Fare thee well! I hope I shall be back soon myself." The horse sped off like the wind. The prince's death (the word carries a capital in the Romanian text, "Moartea lui" [his Death]) is presented as a being endowed with a voice ("Bine ai venit, că de mai întârziai, şi eu mă prăpădeam" [Welcome, for had you delayed I myself would have lost my life]) and a hand with which death slaps him, and he immediately turns to dust. As I explain in Şerban (2007), although Cartianu who, perhaps in a bid to adjust her translation to the child audience she clearly targets, intervenes in many places in the narrative, she does not go to the length of providing a traditional happy ending. Nevertheless, she gives the prince a measure of dignity in the form of a few moments in which to realise what is happening to him and to acquiesce.

EXCERPT 8: The transgression. ST: Ieşea adesea la vânătoare; dar, într-o zi, se luă după un iepure, dete o săgeată, dete două şi nu-l nimeri; supărat, alergă după el şi dete şi cu a treia săgeată, cu care îl şi nimeri; dară nefericitul, în învălmăşeală, nu băgase de seamă că, alergând după iepure, trecuse în Valea Plângerii. TT1: Sometimes he would go shooting and one day he was after a hare. He shot an arrow which missed, so he tried another and another. Angry now, he shot a fourth arrow which hit the hare. In his excitement the prince had not noticed that he had followed the hare into the Vale of Tears. TT2: He would often go hunting; but one day, as he was chasing a wild hare, he shot one arrow, and missed it; he shot a second arrow, and missed again; he chased the hare angrily, and shot a third arrow, which hit it; but, in the thrill of the chase, the poor prince didn't notice that he had crossed into The Wailing Valley.

It is not the violence of hunting which is presented as problematic in "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte", but the crossing of the forbidden, invisible border. Nevertheless, it was the pursuit of an animal that brought it about. Tormented by his newly recovered ability to feel longing for his parents, Prince Handsome wants to go back and no one can convince him otherwise, just like, when he undertook the quest for eternal youth and everlasting life, nobody succeeded in preventing his departure. The horse now sides with the three fairies, not with the prince: "Toate rugăciunile celor trei femei, precum şi ale calului, n-au fost în stare să-i potolească dorul părinţilor" [All the prayers of the three women, as well as of the horse, were unable to quench the yearning for his parents]. In Cartianu's translation, only the fairies do the entreating: "But all the pleadings of his wife and her sisters could not persuade Prince Handsome to stay and he determined to go home". But this he cannot do without the horse.

EXCERPT 9: The negotiation. ST: În cele mai de pe urmă, calul îi zise: ─ Dacă nu vrei să mă asculţi, stăpâne, orice ţi se va întâmpla, să ştii că numai tu eşti de vină. Am să-ţi spui o vorbă şi, dacă vei primi tocmeala mea, te duc înapoi. ─ Primesc, zise el cu toată mulţumirea, spune-o! ─ Cum vom ajunge la palatul tatălui tău, să te las jos şi eu să mă întorc, de vei voi să rămâi măcar un ceas. ─ Aşa să fie, zise el. TT1: At last the horse said, "If you will not listen to me, master, you must take the blame, no matter what happens to you. Let me say one thing before I take you home." "Very well," said Prince Handsome, "what is it?" "As soon as we reach your father's palace, I shall put you down. May I be free to return, should you wish to stay there, if only for an hour?" "Certainly," said the prince. TT2: At length, the horse told him: "If you will not listen to me, my lord, come what may, it will be your fault alone. I am going to tell you just one thing, and if you agree with me, I shall take you back." "I agree," the thankful prince said. "Name it." "As soon as we get to your father's palace, I shall lay you down, and if you mean to linger as little as one hour, I'm gone." "So be it," the prince answered.

Why does the horse, who understands the consequence for the prince, accept to transport him înapoi [back]? Of course, the question can be reversed: why should he not do that, and indeed can he refuse, once it has become clear Prince Handsome is unable to continue his current life. After all, the prince's unfailing determination is what set in motion the events surrounding the departure from his parents' palace and the empire he was heir to, and the same irrepressible urge now propels him in the opposite direction. Solomon's translation is "back", but Cartianu writes "home". Does the old young man yearn

Coda

Travelling, transportation, permanent youth, everlasting life-these are some of the keywords in Petre Ispirescu's "Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe şi viaţă fără de moarte", a fairy tale situated under the sign of the journey, of the quest, and, I contend, of translation. In my contribution, I have examined aspects of the interaction between the main characters in the Romanian original and two of its English translations, one of them human and the other a non-human, magic animal.

Animals are present throughout the narrative; they are virtually without exception presented as having magic powers and their roles are numerous, in the economy of the story. The most prominent is the horse who, I have attempted to reveal, is a psychopomp and a translator serving his companion in the latter's endeavour to attain prolonged life. This involves taking the prince away from his country of origin and from his parents' home and carrying him across borders which challenge his determination to travel while at the same time raising questions about the nature of the quest. What is eternal youth? Perhaps the ability to transform, to embrace growth, rather than an aspiration to preserve something by freezing it and putting it on a shelf protected by glass? Translation can show the way, combining as it does the imperative of loyal service, of guiding others, with the art of transformation, of renewal.