What does the "En principe" mean here (Camus' L'Étranger) ?

Question

I was reading L'Étranger by Albert Camus and came upon the following text:

En principe, l'enterrement est fixé à dix heures du matin. Nous avons pensé que vous pourrez ainsi veiller la disparue.

I'm having trouble understanding the meaning of the phrase "En principe" as used here. I found that it has three possible meanings:

1. In principle/Ideally
2. Normally/Usually/Generally
3. As a rule

Based on this, I came up with the following translation: "In principle, the burial is set at ten o'clock in the morning." which means we have set the burial at ten o'clock in the morning but this is only true in principle, which is to say that the burial may or may not actually take place at ten o'clock in the morning.

However, when I referred to the English edition of the book, I found the sentence translated as

As is usually the case, the funeral is set for ten o'clock in the morning.

Here, the second meaning of the phrase is used.

However, the next sentence says "We thought this way you'd be able to keep vigil over the departed." which implies that the burial timings were set up specifically so that Meursault may stay beside his mother all night. Perhaps, they wouldn't have set this timing if Meursault had arrived one day earlier and decided to stay there for two days. So, I think the second meaning "usually/generally/normally/usually" is not appropriate here. However "in principle/ideally" fits well here since it means that the burial timings have been set by us for this case at this ten o'clock in the morning, but this might change if something unexpected happens.

So, what is the phrase actually conveying here? Could someone please clarify the usage for me?

Answer 1

Ici, « en principe » signifie « s’il n’y a pas de contretemps ». Here, « en principe » means « if no event changes this decision »

Answer 2

Later:

Puis je me suis souvenu qu'avant de me conduire chez le directeur, il m'avait parlé de maman. Il m'avait dit qu'il fallait l'enterrer très vite, parce que dans la plaine il faisait chaud, surtout dans ce pays. C'est alors qu'il m'avait appris qu'il avait vécu à Paris et qu'il avait du mal à l'oublier. À Paris, on reste avec le mort trois, quatre jours quelquefois. Ici on n'a pas le temps, on ne s'est pas fait à l'idée que déjà il faut courir derrière le corbillard. Sa femme lui avait dit alors : « Tais-toi, ce ne sont pas des choses à raconter à Monsieur. »Le vieux avait rougi et s'était excusé. J'étais intervenu pour dire : « Mais non. Mais non. » Je trouvais ce qu'il racontait juste et intéressant.

Because of the hot weather there, burials are done as soon as possible. To give Meursault time to have a viewing, the burial wasn't on the first morning after her death, but delayed for a day.

To avoid the heat of the day, it had to happen relatively early, and "En principe" by 10 in the morning, before the sun's heat became too intense. Even then, the procession had to move unusually quickly.

All three meanings of "En principe" are appropriate here, and "As is usually the case, the funeral is set for ten o'clock in the morning." seems like the best translation.

Answer 3

Gaétan Ryckeboer has already given the correct answer, but I wanted to expand on that a little.

Looking it up, I was surprised to see that the meaning of en principe as used in the quoted sentence was missing from all the dictionaries I was able to consult. That meaning is none of “1. ‘in principle/ideally’; 2. ‘normally/usually/generally’; or 3. ‘as a rule’”. Instead, it’s the one given by Gaétan, namely ”unless something changes”.

One possible translation is therefore: “Unless something changes, the funeral will be at 10 tomorrow morning.”

Comments:

• In French, enterrement can be either ‘burial’ or ‘funeral’. It seems to me that the latter is at least as appropriate here.
• It is made clear that the funeral/burial is to take place the following day, so “at 10 tomorrow morning” is one way of translating à dix heures du matin.