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Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - History / Medieval kingship | | Spanish term or phrase: sentido de estado | This is a characteristic of the young Pedro IV of Aragon.
I have some ideas but would really like to see what others come up with. The context is an academic history article describing an emotional account he wrote of his coronation:
Estas anotaciones emocionales aumentan la carga dramática del relato, y contribuyen a que el lector tome partido a favor del rey, convencido de su valor y lealtad, así como su sentido de estado ante sus nuevas responsabilidades públicas.
All suggestions welcome - don't be shy, history lovers. |
|  David RonderKudoZ activityQuestions: 15 (none open) ( 1 closed without grading) Answers: 280
United Kingdom
| | Local time: 03:28
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| | statesmanlike gravitas | Explanation:
maybe
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Note added at 1 hr (2011-11-13 17:17:26 GMT)
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gravitas=dignified comportment or mien see
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gravitas
seriousness and importance of manner, causing feelings of respect and trust in others
He's an effective enough politician but somehow he lacks the statesmanlike gravitas of a world leader.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/gravitas
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Note added at 9 days (2011-11-22 23:00:09 GMT) Post-grading
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glad to help |
| Selected response from:
gallagy2
Ireland
| Grading comment This was a tricky one. Everyone was on the right track. I didn't feel "sense of state" said quite enough in English, though capitalization helped. "Statesmanship" suggests skill and experience, but this is a 16 year-old at his coronation. Gravitas and patriotism are related concepts, but I felt a touch wide of the mark as a translation. The most helpful word was "statesmanlike" and I settled for "his statesmanlike sense of duty", which went well in the context. So thanks gallagy2 and thank you all.
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer |
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| Discussion entries: 0 |
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Automatic update in 00:
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30 mins confidence:   peer agreement (net): -1
31 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
52 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +4 sense of statesmanship
Explanation:
I think this is probably what it's getting at: an understanding of what the state means and requires and and the wisdom and integrity to serve its interests.
This, by the way, is exactly what people mean by "sentido de estado" today. It's currently being bandied about in the election campaign; the PP has been saying that Spain needs a prime minister with "sentido de estado". The quality they're referring to is what we would call "statesmanship", I think.
It's anachronisitic, in that the idea of the state as a political unit didn't really develop until the sixteenth century, and indeed "statesman" seems to originate in English at the end of that century, from the French "homme d'état". But I don't think that's a fatal objection; the same could be said of Spanish.
Historically, "sentido de estado" could be interpreted as a sense of what his position required of him: "estado" in the sense of "estate". But to capture this you'd have to resort to a longer explanation.
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Note added at 53 mins (2011-11-13 17:08:12 GMT)
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Didn't see gallagy2's answer before posting; we're thinking along similar lines. But I'd stick with my formulation.
| Charles Davis
Local time: 04:28
Meets criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:  English
PRO pts in category: 56
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| | Notes to answerer
Asker: Yes, wonderfully topical, I saw it in El País yesterday. I would like to avoid an anachronistic formulation, if possible, but you might be right that it would not be a fatal objection in this context.
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The translation workplace 
