Working languages: Spanish to English
English (monolingual)
| Jessie L.
Linguist librarian
Scotland, United Kingdom Local time: 04:54 BST (GMT+1)
Native in: English  | | Willingness to Work Again  |  No feedback collected |
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Freelancer,  Verified site user | | Translation, Editing/proofreading | | Specializes in: | | Education / Pedagogy | Tourism & Travel | | Poetry & Literature | Cooking / Culinary | | Food & Dairy | General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters | | Other |
| Also works in: | | Cinema, Film, TV, Drama | Cosmetics, Beauty | | Retail | Photography/Imaging (& Graphic Arts) | | Psychology | Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc. | | Names (personal, company) |
More Less | | PRO-level points: 27, Questions answered: 27, Questions asked: 45 | 0 projects entered
| Sample translations submitted: 2 | Spanish to English: La bola de cristal | Source text - Spanish
La Bola de Cristal y la Movida: ¡Viva el mal, viva el capital!
“¡Adoro la economía, la plusvalía, y la disentería! ¡Viva el mal, viva el capital!” gritaba desde las pantallas una marioneta “fea, mala y electrocutante” con ojos saltones y cables como cabellera. Era la Bruja Avería, la malvada del legendario programa de televisión La Bola de Cristal, emitido en España en los años 80 y que hoy, veinte años exactos después del fin de su emisión, sigue sorprendiendo por su descaro y mala uva
“Si se ríe Ud., señor, romperá el televisor, si se ría Ud., señora, romperá la lavadora”
La Bola de Cristal nació en octubre de 1984 bajo la batuta de Lolo Rico. Concebido para un público infantil-juvenil, el programa se dividía en cuatro secciones dirigidas a franjas de diferentes edades, que fueron evolucionando a lo largo de los años: Los Electroduendes (para los más pequeños, protagonizado por marionetas); El librovisor (para fomentar la lectura entre los mayores); La banda magnética (sobre televisión y cine); y La cuarta parte (un noticiario para jóvenes, al principio emitido independientemente del resto).
La orientación infantil pronto dio paso a contenidos mucho más críticos, con mayor carga social, cultural y política. La propia directora ha insistido en repetidas ocasiones que La Bola no era simplemente un programa para niños, algo en lo que coincide también Francisco Quintanar, documentarista de la emisión desde sus inicios. “Nadie en este momento pondría algo como La Cuarta Parte en horario juvenil” nos cuenta por teléfono, en referencia a la sección presentada por Javier Gurruchaga sobre temas de actualidad como la censura o el Apartheid de Sudáfrica, “eso es algo para prime time nocturno”.
“¿Qué tiene esta Bola que a todo el mundo le mola?”
La Bola de Cristal reflejaba los cambios que atravesaba la sociedad española en la época de la Transición. Tras cuarenta años de dictadura, se garantiza la amnistía política total y la libertad de prensa, se legalizan los sindicatos y el derecho a huelga (1977) y el divorcio (1981), se eliminan las leyes contra el adulterio (1978). Y en la calle, se respira un ambiente de tolerancia, del que se nutren movimientos culturales rompedores como La Movida madrileña, encarnada por gente como el cineasta Pedro Almodóvar, el fotógrafo García Alix o la cantante y presentadora de la Bola, Alaska, hija de un militar republicano español exiliado y de una exiliada del régimen castrista. Según Quintanar, la época fue clave para la creación del programa. En aquel momento, explica, la televisión en España gozaba de uno de los momentos con más libertad informativa de su Historia, debido a varios factores: un nuevo gobierno elegido democráticamente que debía legitimarse como democrático, y un cierto vacío en la propia televisión, en parte originado como reacción a la censura de la dictadura franquista. “Sin embargo”, apostilla Carlos Fernández Liria, uno de los guionistas del programa, “hay que evitar mitificar la época”.
“Si por lo menos tuviese televisión soportaría mejor la explotación”
Describir La Bola como políticamente incorrecta es quedarse corto. “Aquello era terrorismo”, bromea Quintanar. El guionista y filósofo Fernández Liria nos confirma que el equipo tenía carta blanca a la hora de escribir y que solo en contadas ocasiones tuvieron alguna llamada de atención “por ejemplo de la embajada de EE UU o de la iraní, por críticas a Reagan o a Jomeini”. Un aspecto que Fernández Liria se cuida en señalar es el carácter político de los electroduendes, aquellos “duendes de la electrónica” que ridiculizaban a los “humanoides gilivatios”. En una temporada, nos explica, los electroduendes siguieron capítulo por capítulo el Libro Primero de El Capital. Fernández Liria señala el papel de su compañero Santiago Alba Rico para explicar el Marxismo y economía a los niños, que permitió “abrir una brecha y contar por una vez algo diferente”.
Pero más allá de la política, hoy todavía asombra el tono atrevido y gamberro del programa. Así, una sección daba consejos para “no perder la dignidad durante las comidas” tales como “protestar enérgicamente por los platos que no te gusten”, “tirarle bolas de pan a tu hermano pequeño” o (por supuesto) “siempre limpiarte con la manga”. En otro, una chica explicaba didácticamente su embarazo al público infantil: “naturalmente, mi novio y yo tuvimos relaciones sexuales y por eso ahora tengo un humanoide creciendo en mí”. Y un tercero daba quince segundos para imaginar: “si no se te ha ocurrido nada, a lo mejor deberías ver menos la tele”.
Si bien gracias al programa “la Movida se puso de moda”, es preciso evitar una identificación total entre ambas cosas. Es cierto que La Bola de Cristal mantiene una estética afín y se nutre de muchos de los protagonistas de la Movida, pero su emisión no comienza hasta mediados de los ochenta, casi en los estertores del movimiento, y termina a finales de la década, en un contexto cultural y social radicalmente diferente. Y el propio programa, a su vez, se distancia de la Movida mediante episodios que son una crítica abierta a esta.
Fernández Liria concluye reflexionando sobre la imposibilidad de emitir un programa como La Bola de Cristal en la televisión comercial de hoy en día. Quintanar lo secunda: “Internet es quizás el único medio en el que podría repetirse algo así”.
| Translation - English
The Crystal Ball and La Movida madrileña: Long live money! Long live iniquity!
"I adore the economy, capital gain and dysentery!" "Long live money! Long live iniquity!" was shouted at us from the television by an "ugly, evil and electrocuting" puppet with bulging eyes and cables for hair. It was the Bruja Avería, the wicked witch from the legendary 1980s Spanish programme The Crystal Ball. Even today, despite having been off the air for exactly 20 years, audiences are still shocked by its brashness.
"Laugh, Sir, and the television you will break. Laugh, Madam, and a broken washing machine you will make."
The Crystal Ball was created by Lolo Rico and launched in 1984 with the aim of appealing to children of all ages. Each of its four segments (which changed and evolved over the years) targeted a different age group. For the youngest children, there were The Electrogoblins, involving puppets; The Bookviewer attempted to encourage older children to read; The Magnetic Strip was about film and television; and lastly, there was a news programme for young people called The Fourth Part, which was initially shown independently from the rest.
Its child-oriented content soon gave way to much more analytical subject matter, with higher social, cultural and political bearing. Even the show's director has pointed out on various occasions that The Crystal Ball wasn't just for children. Francisco Quintanar, a researcher for the programme since its beginnings, agrees. "Nobody in this day and age would put The Fourth Part on children's TV," he tells us over the phone, referring to the segment presented by Javier Gurruchaga which covered current events such as Apartheid in South Africa and censorship; "that stuff is something for prime-time viewing."
"What is it about this ball that everyone loves, one and all?"
The Crystal Ball reflected the changes taking place throughout Spanish society during the country's transition to democracy. After 40 years of dictatorship, there was now guaranteed political amnesty and free press, trade unions and the right to strike were legalised (1977), as was divorce (1981) and laws against adultery were done away with (1978). On the streets, there was a new air of tolerance which nurtured breakthrough socio-cultural movements such as La Movida madrileña. La Movida was epitomised by figures like film-maker Pedro Almodóvar, photographer García Alix and singer and presenter of The Crystal Ball, Alaska, daughter of an exiled Spanish republican soldier and a female exile from the Castro regime. According to Quintanar, this era was vital to the creation of the programme. At that time, he explains, television in Spain was enjoying more liberty in regard to content than ever before, due to various factors. Firstly, a new government had been democratically elected and had to live up to its democratic status by not interfering in broadcasting. Secondly, the repercussions of censorship under the dictatorship had left a distinct void in Spanish television. “However," adds Carlos Fernández Liria, one of the programme's writers, "we have to avoid glamorising the era."
"If I at least had a television, I could maybe put up with exploitation"
Describing The Crystal Ball as politically incorrect is an understatement. "It was terrorism," jokes Quintanar. Writer and philosopher Fernández Liria confirms that the team had carte blanche when it came to writing. Only on very few occasions did they receive any warnings "from the US embassy or the Iranian one, for criticism of Reagn or Jomeini, for example."
One aspect of the programme that Fernández Liria makes sure to draw our attention to is the political nature of the electrogoblins - those "goblins of electronics" who made fun of those "dimwatt humanoids". He tells us that in one series, the electrogoblins went through, chapter by chapter, the first volume of Das Kapital. Fernández Liria highlights the work of his colleague Santiago Alba Rico in explaining Marxism and the economy to children - it allowed them to "break new ground and talk about something different for a change."
But beyond the political element, audiences today are still astounded by the insolent and crass tone of the programme. For example, one part gave advice on how to "not lose one's dignity during meals" by "energetically protesting about dishes that you don't like", "throwing balls of bread at your little brother" or, of course, "always wiping your mouth with your sleeve." In another part, a girl gave children an educational explanation of her pregnancy: "I've got a humanoid growing inside me now because my boyfriend and I had sexual relations, of course." In a third part, children were given fifteen seconds to imagine something: "If you haven't thought of anything yet, maybe you should watch less TV."
Even though this programme is responsible for "making La Movida fashionable", it is necessary to avoid making a complete association between the two. It's true that The Crystal Ball is aesthetically similar to and influenced by many of the protagonists of La Movida. However, the programme wasn't broadcast until the mid-80s, as the movement took its dying breaths, and it finished at the end of the decade, within a radically different social and cultural context. The actual programme, in turn, distances itself from La Movida by offering an open commentary on the subject in some of its episodes.
Fernández Liria concludes by reflecting about the impossibility of showing a programme like The Crystal Ball on today's commercial television. Quintanar seconds it, "The only place you could show something like that again is probably the Internet."
| | | Spanish to English: 6th ProZ.com Translation Contest - Entry #4466 |
| Source text - Spanish
¿Dónde estás, Lamia, en qué playa, en qué cama, en qué lobby de hotel te alcanzará esta carta que entregaré a un empleado indiferente para que le ponga los sellos y me indique el precio del franqueo sin mirarme, sin más que repetir los gestos de la rutina? Todo es impreciso, posible e improbable: que la leas, que no te llegue, que te llegue y no la leas, entregada a juegos más ceñidos; o que la leas entre dos tragos de vino, entre dos respuestas a esas preguntas que siempre te harán las que viven la indecible fortuna de compartirte en una mesa o una reunión de amigos; sí, un azar de instantes o de humores, el sobre que asoma en tu bolso y que decides abrir porque te aburres, o que hundes entre un peine y una lima de uñas, entre monedas sueltas y pedazos de papel con direcciones o mensajes. Y si la lees, porque no puedo tolerar que no la leas aunque sólo sea para interrumpirla con un gesto de hastío, si la lees hasta aquí, hasta esta palabra aquí que se aferra a tus ojos, que busca guardar tu mirada en lo que sigue, si la lees, Lamia, qué puede importarte lo que quiero decirte, no ya que te amo porque eso lo sabes desde siempre y te da igual y no es noticia, realmente no es noticia para ti allá donde estés amando a otra o solamente mirando el río de mujeres que el viento de la calle acerca a tu mesa y se lleva en lentas bordadas, cediéndote por un instante sus singladuras y sus máscaras de proa, las regatas multicolores que alguna ganará sin saberlo cuando te levantes y la sigas, la vuelvas única en la muchedumbre del atardecer, la abordes en el instante preciso, en el portal exacto donde tu sonrisa, tu pregunta, tu manera de ofrecer la llave de la noche sean exactamente halcón, festín, hartazgo.
| Translation - English
Where are you, Lamia? Where will this letter reach you? In some beach, in some bed, in some hotel lobby? I'll hand it over to some indifferent employee to put a stamp on and he'll tell me the price of postage without even looking up, merely going through the motions. Everything is uncertain, possible and improbable - you might read it, it might not arrive, it might arrive but you won't read it, subjected to one of your twisted games; or maybe you'll read it between two sips of wine, or between answers to those questions that your friends or the incredibly fortunate people sharing a table with you will ask. Yes, a series of random moments or moods, the envelope poking out of your bag and you decide to open it because you're bored, or you drown it between a comb and a nail file, among loose coins and little bits of paper with addresses or messages scribbled on them. And if you read it - because I can't stand thinking that you won't read it, even if you grew weary halfway through - if you read it up to this point, up to this very word here that anchors your eyes, that seeks to hold your gaze on what follows, if you read it, Lamia, why would what I want to say matter to you? Not because I love you, because you've always known that and you don't care and it's not news - it's really not news to you wherever you are, loving someone else or just watching the torrent of women brought to your table by the wind, advancing in languid waves, relieving you for a moment of your nautical days and your figureheads, the multicoloured regattas that someone will unwittingly win when you rise and follow them, making them solitary in the crowd at dusk; and you boarding at that very moment, through the precise door where your smile, your curiosity, your way of offering the key to the night are precisely pheasant, feast, full. |
More Less | | European Parliament, General, Sayings, Wine | | Master's degree - (Undergrad.) University of Glasgow | | Years of translation experience: 4. Registered at ProZ.com: Aug 2007. | | N/A | | N/A | | N/A | | Microsoft Word, OmegaT, OpenOffice | | CV available upon request | | About me I offer Spanish to English translation services as well as English-language proof-reading and editing. Due to my upbringing and schooling, I am able to translate into and edit both British and American varieties of English.
My specialist fields are library and information science, education, literature, tourism and gastronomy. I also have a keen interest in areas such as cinema/TV, social sciences and photography.
Some of my recent projects have included:
- a market research presentation on Spanish wines
- various Spanish public sector procurement contract summaries
- news updates for the Ombudsman of the Region of Murcia
- website accessibility information for the visually impaired
- an article on post-Franco television in Spain
Education
Postgraduate Diploma in Information & Library Studies, University of Strathclyde, Scotland
MA (Hons) Hispanic Studies (ES, PT, CA), University of Glasgow, Scotland
First-class marks received for Spanish to English Literary Translation, Spanish Language and for my Honours dissertation, which examined the linguistic adaptation of foreign films in Spain within a social context.
Seven years of primary/secondary education at US schools, both in the United States and in military-dependent schools overseas.
Five years of primary/secondary education at Scottish state schools.
Background & experience
Since unearthing a passion and skill for translation at university in 2006, I have worked as a translator on both a paid and voluntary basis. Before starting as a part-time freelancer in 2010, I worked for a short while as a researcher and translator for a local procurement company, translating Spanish public sector tender summaries into English. Currently, I work part-time in a further education college library, helping students to locate and interpret information. I also undertake pro-bono translation work for Barcelona-based organisation Iwith.org and Cafebabel.com.
I developed fluency in Spanish by living various parts of Spain, where I taught English in state schools and other organisations. I also taught Spanish to children in the UK. Having travelled extensively throughout the Iberian Peninsula, I possess a deep understanding of Spanish culture and am well aware of variations between regions. I regularly revisit Spain and seek out opportunities to speak Spanish in the UK whenever I can. Keeping abreast of Spanish news and culture through literature, music and online resources is also integral to my daily life.
Although I speak and understand Portuguese at an intermediate level, and Catalan at an elementary level, I do not tend to offer translation services from these languages.
Software & IT skills
- MS Windows XP
- OpenOffice Writer (word processor)
- OpenOffice Calc (spreadsheet)
- Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer
- OmegaT (CAT tool)
- Very computer literate
- Good knowledge of HTML and CSS
- Basic image manipulation ability
- Experience of converting various file formats
| This user has earned KudoZ points by helping other translators with PRO-level terms. Click point total(s) to see term translations provided.
Total pts earned: 31
PRO-level pts: 27
| | Top languages (PRO) | | Spanish to English | 23 | | English | 4 | | Top general fields (PRO) | | Tech/Engineering | 8 | | Other | 8 | | Art/Literary | 7 | | Medical | 4 | | Top specific fields (PRO) | | Transport / Transportation / Shipping | 4 | | Medical (general) | 4 | | Cooking / Culinary | 4 | | General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters | 4 | | Music | 4 | | Tourism & Travel | 4 | | Food & Dairy | 3 |
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Keywords: Translation service, servicio de traducción, target languages American English and British English, inglés americano y británico, Scottish, escocés, Glasgow, European Spanish, castellano/español europeo, natural dialogue, diálogo natural, literature, literatura, narrativa, libraries, bibliotecas, library science, biblioteconomía y documentación, education, educación, scripts, guiones, accurate, psychology, psicología, tourism and travel, turismo, general translation, traducciones generales, formal letters, cartas formales, translator, traductora, traductor, proofreading, revisión, Glasgow, Scotland, Escocia, United States, Estados Unidos, EEUU
Profile last updated
Dec 13, 2011 |
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