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11:09 Nov 24, 2011
Spanish to English translations [PRO] Journalism / journalism
Spanish term or phrase:se han ido al fiable
Hello,
I have come across the following sentence:
"Tanto las novelas tipo Tom Clancy como los cientos de películas de
terroristas que amenazaban a los Estados Unidos se han ido al fiable".
I don't know how to translate into English the expression "se han ido al fiable".
Fiable is trustworthy, but I've never seen this expression in Spanish.
The text is from the exams for "Traductor Interprete Jurado" in Spain.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 21 minutos (2011-11-24 11:30:30 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
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8 entradas - 5 autores - Última entrada: 12 Jun
'Tanto las novelas tipo Tom Clancy como los cientos de películas terroristas que amenazan a los Estados Unidos se han ido al diablo.' ...
Tanto las novelas tipo Tom Clancy como los cientos de películas de terroristas que amenazan a los Estados Unidos se han ido al diablo. Eran ficciones de ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 22 minutos (2011-11-24 11:32:00 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
La traducción: was a miserable failure or failed miserably
Well, if it's taken from a text source that's different, then I guess it's an error. But it actually looks like a play on words to me--that they have deliberately said "fiable" instead of "diablo" because these books and films have gotten very predictable. So it would be a question of trying to match the play on words as closely as possible if that were the case.
Probably these "errors" are deliberate, but the Ministry of Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación doesn't publish any information about these exams. Not surprisingly, only 0,5% of people pass the english-spanish test!
Indeed it does not, and there are sources which prove it is an error. But I believe it is very worrying that such a mistake should be found in exam papers. It should be reported to the relevant supervisory body.
The exam paper seems to have an error. The expression "se han ido al fiable" doesn't seem to make any sense in Spanish. The original text is from an article published in "El País", and the text is "se han ido al diablo".
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 21 minutos (2011-11-24 11:30:30 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
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8 entradas - 5 autores - Última entrada: 12 Jun
'Tanto las novelas tipo Tom Clancy como los cientos de películas terroristas que amenazan a los Estados Unidos se han ido al diablo.' ...
Tanto las novelas tipo Tom Clancy como los cientos de películas de terroristas que amenazan a los Estados Unidos se han ido al diablo. Eran ficciones de ...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 22 minutos (2011-11-24 11:32:00 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
La traducción: was a miserable failure or failed miserably
Smartranslators Local time: 09:04 Native speaker of: Spanish PRO pts in category: 40
Grading comment
Thank you for your help. The text had an error.
4 hrs confidence:
have lost their popular appeal / are not as popular as they used to be
Explanation: This is not a literal translation. I am assuming that the word is "diable" rather than "fiable." One can say that a newspaper has "gone to hell" (which is to say that it isn't what it used to be in terms of credibility, popularity, and quality, but individual books and movies are what they are: moments in time that do not experience a gradual decline. They can't be correctly described as "going to hell." Therefore, I'd either say that the genre is going to hell or that it is no longer as popular with the public as it once was (unlike newspapers, Tom Clancy books and adventure films have never had much of a claim to being great literature or filmmaking.) However, as this is a qualification examination for Traductor Interprete Jurado, one has to ask what the correct answer based on the judgement of the examining board would be. The subtleties of this text could very well have escaped the person/people who designed the test and the "correct" answer may be "gone to the devil/gone to hell" even though the resulting sentence is "carente del sentido." Good luck!
Jenni Lukac Local time: 09:04 Works in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 32
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
