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Spanish to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / Beverage
Spanish term or phrase:\"cerveza en los aretes\"
The context is a poem that speaks to "el escaso viento palúdico" that brings certain things to the poet's attention (see verse below). Unclear to me is the notion of "tehuanas con frialdad de cerveza en los aretes." I'm assuming "tehuanas" is a reference to the brand of beer, but I could be wrong; "cervaza en los aretes" is really what befuddles me.
El escaso viento palúdico me trae un olor a camarones vivos, a tehuanas con frialdad de cerveza en los aretes.
Explanation: Aportación impulsada por @Robert. Sin garantía. El inglés no es mi idioma. Pero a veces hay que dejarse llevar por la inspiración. Suerte.
Thanks, but poetry is not my language either :-) I just think your idea is spot on, so it'd be nice if you were to at least post something along the line of what you wrote here as an answer or reference, to acknowledge your contribution. Saludos!
...definitely makes the most sense to me. If you look up images of Tehuana earrings, many of them are gold, or at least in colour. Nice one, Juan, please post an answer! How about something like "with earrings the color of cold beer"?
Granted, poetry is not my field, and "earrings as cold as beer" does little in the way of evoking anything resembling a real image or feeling for me, but “Tehuana women with bottle openers for cold beer” just seems absurd - even if you were to translate "aretes" as bottle openers, it couldn't mean "bottle openers for cold beer", syntactically it would have to mean "with bottle openers as cold as beer" or "with the coldness of beer in the bottle openers", which is not the same thing at all.
I'm with you, Cecilia. I understand that it's a poem, & I had read the entire poem before I made my comment on your answer. I do have an imagination, & I do use it. I understand what, for example, "a heart of gold" means, or "he's the black sheep of the family", etc. I'm just saying that "earrings [or for that matter bottle-openers] as cold as beer" just doesn't convey any particular meaning to me. Any help to overcome this will be appreciated.
Of course one assumes you have the complete version of whatever you are translating. I mentioned the link to the poem to Tom, so I do not understand why you tell me: "I didn't need to read what Phil published. I have the complete text. His submission is only a portion of the poem."
I had not realised the link published by Phil was not the complete poem, because I had found it and read it before. Here it is: http://diarioinca.com/poema-antojo-de-trampa-francisco-herna... Having said that, “Antojo de Trampa” is the name of the book, and the part published by Phil is considered a self contained poem: http://amediavoz.com/hernandezF.htm#A ESTAS PALABRAS MENUDAS... Without being an expert on this poet it this seems to me he is writing about love and sensuality, not a particularly trying relationship. In any case, his poetry is not easy to translate. As for the meaning of aretes, it would be interesting if you quoted your sources but I never knew it meant "bottle openers" and could not find any proof of that. Perhaps Juan, being Mexican, could shed some light on this particular issue. In any case, I would never interpret “aretes” as “bottle openers” in this context. Earrings are quite a meaningful part of tehuana women’s attire and an alluring accesory. Much more related to the general imagery than a bottle opener I’d say.
Cecilia Gowar United Kingdom Specializes in field Native speaker of: Spanish PRO pts in category: 227
Notes to answerer
Asker: I didn't need to read what Phil published. I have the complete text. His submission is only a portion of the poem. Thanks!
Asker: At first, I committed a cardinal translation sin I’m known to warn against, especially when translating literature; that is, I was trying to do a literal translation. Once I realized that, I focused on metaphors and meanings. The process involved finding synonyms for frialdad and arêtes in both English and Spanish. I then came across a Diego Rivera 1923, “Mujeres Tehuanas,” and a related story about the culture and nature of Tehuana women. That led me to wonder if the poet was talking about the attitude of Tehuana women because the theme of the poem, “Antojo de trampas” by Mexican poet Francisco Hernández, is about a trying relationship between a man and a woman.
Since earrings as cold as beer didn’t make sense to me (poetry or not), I considered, instead, “earrings worn by Tehuana women with the indifference of cold (frostiness, iciness, coldness) beer.” Yet, it wasn’t until I dug deep for synonyms for aretes (e.g., abrelatas, abrebotellas, sacacorchos) that I found my answer: “Tehuana women with bottle openers for cold beer.” The poet is saying the month of May does XYZ; he imagines the woman in the relationship doing XYZ; and “el escaso viento…trae un olor a camarones vivos, [y trae] a tehuanas con.…” He’s paring camarones with cold beer, not cold earrings.
Parenthetically, I keep trying to correct "aretes" and it's not happening. I've also tried to post this as a general answer to everyone who was kind enough to respond, but I'm all thumbs. My apologies and thank you for your efforts. (I tried to post this several times so it may show up more than once as a result of my attempt at editing.)
Asker: Tom, you posed valid questions. As a woman who wears earrings, I couldn't wrap my head around the notion of "cold earrings" either. To add one more thought that cross my mind, that is, in addition to "earrings worn by Tehuana women with the indifference of cold beer," I played with "Tehuana women who wear earrings with the coldness of beer." ¡Ay ay ay! Still, as you can see from my dissertation above, the light bulb finally came on. Thanks for your response.
Asker: ¡Caramba! Must be the late hour...I meant to say, "crossed" my mind...not "cross" my mind. Please forgive other errors you might find.
peer agreement (net): +2
