acople

10:36 Sep 10, 2013 

If I was negative it was to the text's subject and how it was written (the point about bull-fighting not exactly being innovative) - I have never showed any negativity to you the asker (unless you are the author of the original) and I'm really at a loss why you think so with all your 'don't shoot the messenger' business.
Phil highlighted the point that nobody was shooting the messenger, but disagreeing with the message, but again you seemed to take that personally.
Nobody has criticised you for translating this work. I've translated for plenty of companies that I wouldn't want to actually perform clinical research for.

08:59 Sep 10, 2013 

well Neil, your first response was pretty aggressive ("What gets me is...
where is the innovation in bull-fighting????? A pointless tradition that hasn't changed in the slightest in eons.....I don't think the analogy between the two (toros and business) stands up for more than a second!")

if it had had anyhing to do with helping to provide an answer, maybe i wouldn't have seen it as someone just going haywire about a subject that must bother them. if you re-read your 1st response, you offer no help whatsoever. this is not the place for rants obviously! and i don't see where anyone has "defended you" either. please try to limit the discussion to helping find a good translation. obviously if i could provide more context i would. that's the way these marketing/advertising texts are, short and low on context, which is why i turned to proz. i imagined "acople" was just a normal bullfighting term. didn't realize it would create such controversy!

07:33 Sep 10, 2013 

Well, maybe (though "communion" is perhaps less suitable for business). After all, there is the idea of a quasi-religious ritual behind bullfighting. This is on bullfighting photography:

"Either way, the still photograph—that familiar balletic communion between matador and bull—is, for most of us, our only visual frame of reference for bullfighting."
http://www.jimcornfield.net/4__Corrida_Rangefinder_Magazine_...

And for waxing lyrical, how about this; it's about the Colombian bullfighter Nicolás Nossa:

"He described rare moments of ecstasy in the ring, which he compared to making love, when he felt a communion with the bull."
http://mikesbogotablog.blogspot.com.es/2011/04/bullfighters-...

Note that in Colombian Spanish "acople" also means mating of animals.

07:18 Sep 10, 2013 

I don't understand why you think anybody had anything to say about your opinion on bull-fighting (shoot the messenger!?!?!?). You haven't mentioned your opinion, it's not really important to me and NOBODY has commented on your stance (which I don't even know) on bull-fighting. (Thanks for the defence Phil.)
Good look with your synonym finding, we finally managed to convince you that a synergy exists between the slain and the slayer - if we could see more context maybe we could see why they make this analogy. THere must be more mention of different types, sizes, etc. of business that demonstrate a co-dependence - or maybe not and synergy really has nothing to do with it, without providing more context (what would it hurt to include the two sentences before and after?) it is difficult to be sure!

23:13 Sep 9, 2013 

Toni's "communion" works quite well too.

22:33 Sep 9, 2013 

thanks, Toni Castano.... i looked everywhere for something like that. none of the bullfighting glossaries or encyclopedias contain the word 'acople'. i think synergy is too modern and cold-sounding for a bullfighting term. so i guess i'll come up with some synonym that sounds more traditional, passionate and colorful. thanks to everyone else, too.

22:15 Sep 9, 2013 

I quite agree with you that one's opinions on the ethics of bullfighting are irrelevant to the question of how to translate this term. But the idea that there is no "synergy" in bullfighting is quite wrong, at least as aficionados understand it. The idea Toni has just explained is fundamental. The bull's performance is held to be fundamental to a great "faena", and the spectacle is at its most sublime (to those who find it so) when the quality of the bull inspires and stimulates the bullfighter to reach heights of skill and courage; their joint performance in such cases is regarded as a thing of beauty. The bull is often applauded, sometimes given a "lap of honour" after death, and occasionally "pardoned" (indultado) at the audience's request.

I had better emphasise that I am not expressing my own views here, but my understanding of what it is that fans of bullfighting see in it.

21:07 Sep 9, 2013 

This link provides a straightforward definition of the term "acople":
http://www.opinionytoros.com/tribuna.php?Id=453
TAUROMAQUIA: EXPRESION ARTISTICA
La danza también es una expresión artística y eso es lo que se produce en un ruedo, cuando el acople o comunión entre toro y torero, dos fuerzas, una irracional y la otra racional, produce la perfección, la armonía, el ritmo, la academia, la majestad, que se convierte en el más bello ballet, que cualquier artista plástico, esculpiría.

I am Spanish and neither bullfighting expert nor enthusiast, however it is quite obvious that the author quoted, a Colombian, refers to a kind of understanding or even collaboration between bull and matador. If this collaboration does not exist or succeed, for whatever reasons, the result is a poor show, a poor corrida.
I am not fully sure about "synergy". but I honestly think it reflects in general terms the idea behind the "acople".

20:23 Sep 9, 2013 

good lord, i'm just the translator! (aka, the messenger). seems pretty normal to me that over the years translating from spanish to english, and living in spain, at some point you will come across some sort of bullfighting expressions and analogies. i am making no statement as to whether i like or dislike bullfighting. my only interest is in knowing what the term means. BTW, you can use bullfighting analogies w/o necessarily liking bullfighting, just as lots of people in the US use baseball terminology who know nothing about baseball. just an ingrained part of the culture which we, as translators, must deal with from time to time. thank god we don't have some other job that's even messier and requires less scruples!

20:18 Sep 9, 2013 

Neil isn't shooting the messenger - he's just expressing disagreement with your text.
"Synergy" is only an approximation, but the idea is working together so that the sum is greater than the parts - a very romanticized view, since bullfighting is one-sided, legalized cruelty.

20:02 Sep 9, 2013 

you're just shooting at the messenger, Neil... we all probably have to translate lots of things we don't agree with for lots of companies, products and activities we don't exactly feel any sympathy for. --- as for the context, there is no more. it is a document which, as i have mentioned several times, draws parallels between bullfighting and doing business. this sentence just stands alone, so there is no more context to give. i'm not trying to be chintzy with my context-giving! there just isn't any more. "synergy" is definitely not what it means, as there is no "synergy" in bullfighting, but thanks for the suggestion

18:10 Sep 9, 2013 

where is the innovation in bull-fighting????? A pointless tradition that hasn't changed in the slightest in eons.....I don't think the analogy between the two (toros and business) stands up for more than a second!

17:44 Sep 9, 2013 

it is a bullfighting term as seen by "en el toreo"...as well as the other bullfighting references in the text, all of which are just comparisons between bullfighting and doing business.

17:28 Sep 9, 2013 

I still don't really understand what the text is about. Could we have the sentences before and after this one, please?
Also, if it is a bullfighting term (where did you find that out?), it will probably have to be adapted in English.

16:59 Sep 9, 2013 

unfortunately it's not a text about bullfighting, so the reference is a bit out of context.... "igual que en los negocios, es necesario innovar en el toreo para conseguir el acople y por tanto la belleza." that's about it. there are other bullfighting references in the text, but none shed light on this specific word.

16:52 Sep 9, 2013 

Could we have the context please.