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Spanish to English: LOS GOBERNANTES TIENEN MIEDO AL FUTURO General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: Government / Politics
Source text - Spanish Usted probablemente piensa que los que nos marchamos elegimos el camino más fácil, que lo duro es quedarse a resolver los problemas. Pero le tengo que decir que mis abuelos y mis padres se quedaron en Cuba para pelearse con esos problemas. Renunciaron a muchas cosas por la Revolución y hasta se jugaron la vida por ella. Para darme un país avanzado, equitativo, progresista. Y el que me han dado es uno en el que la gente celebra poder comprar un carro y vender su casa como si fuera una conquista. Pero eso no es una conquista, es recuperar un derecho que ya teníamos antes de la Revolución.
¿A eso hemos llegado? ¿A celebrar como un éxito algo tan básico? ¿Cuántas otras cosas básicas habremos perdido en estos años? Para mis padres es doloroso asumir ese fracaso, y no lo quieren para mí. No quieren que con 55 años tenga un sueldo que no me alcance para vivir, ni el sueldo ni la libreta. Porque no alcanza. Y no quieren que para sobrevivir acuda al mercado negro, a la corrupción, a la doble moral, a fingir. Prefieren que esté lejos.
A los 28 años yo me he convertido en la seguridad social de mis padres, ¿O cómo cree que sobreviven dos personas con 650 pesos? Sí, Rafael, hemos tenido que irnos cientos de miles de cubanos para que nuestro país no quiebre. Lo que Cuba ingresa de nuestras remesas es superior, en valor neto, a casi todas sus exportaciones.
Eso sí, el país ha perdido juventud y talento, y en vez de abrir un debate realista sobre cómo parar esa sangría, sigue anclado a un inmovilismo ideológico que no es otra cosa que miedo al futuro. ¿Y qué hago yo en un país cuyos gobernantes le tienen miedo al futuro? ¿Esperar a que se mueran? ¿Esperar a que cambien las leyes por generosidad y no por convicción?
Translation - English You probably think that those of us who left chose the easiest path, that what is hard is staying behind to solve the problems. But I have to say that my grandparents and my parents stayed in Cuba to fight these problems. They sacrificed many things for the Revolution and they even risked their lives for it, in order to give me a modern, fair and progressive country. And the one they have given me is one in which people are ecstatic to be able to buy a car and sell their house, as if it were some sort of triumph. But this isn't a triumph, it's getting back a right we already had before the Revolution.
Have we come to this? Celebrating something this basic as a success? How many other basic things have we lost during these years? For my parents it's painful to bear that failure, and they don't want it for me. They don't want me to be 55 years old and have a salary that doesn't cover my living costs, not the salary nor the ration book. Because it's not enough. And they don't want me to survive by turning to the black market, to corruption, the double standard and pretense. They’d rather I’m far away.
At 28 I have become my parents' social security, or how do you think two people survive on 650 pesos? Yes, Rafael, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have had to leave so that our country does not go bankrupt. What Cuba gains from our remittances is more, in net worth, than almost all its exports.
It's true that the country has lost youth and talent, but instead of opening up a realistic discussion about how to stop this hemorrhage, it carries on, bound to an ideological rigidity that is nothing more or less than fear of the future. And what can I do in a country whose rulers fear the future? Wait till they die? Wait till they change the laws out of generosity and not out of conviction?
Spanish to English: ESTADO DEL ESPÍRITU DE NUESTRA ÉPOCA General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: Media / Multimedia
Source text - Spanish En nuestra época se ha pasado de la era de la razón a la de las emociones. Mantenemos la confianza en la racionalidad científica para resolver problemas prácticos. Por ejemplo, los avances de la medicina son espectaculares. No se duda de la pertinencia de las ciencias médicas ni del saber informático. Pero cuando se trata de cuestiones más profundas de la existencia -nuestro origen y destino, nuestras relaciones afectivas, la vida y la muerte, el bien y el mal- la ciencia no da respuestas. Entonces, vivimos intensamente las emociones que brotan espontáneamente del corazón de la experiencia en temas incontrovertibles de la condición humana.
Si nos faltan palabras para trabajar estas experiencias y observarlas, tenemos gran necesidad de imágenes y mitos que expresen nuestras emociones. El descrédito del logos (conceptualización, ideas, teorías religiosas, filosóficas o ideológicas) lleva a un divorcio entre la palabra y el mundo, según George Steiner, y esto es una tendencia constatable al menos desde principios del siglo XX. Y no ha dejado de acentuarse. Lo que nació en círculos eruditos y artísticos ha llegado a ser moneda corriente. Actualmente, vemos cómo el imaginario colectivo que transmiten los medios se llena de iconos y de nuevas mitologías ante el vacío creado entre el mundo y nuestras representaciones de él -verbales, teóricas- y en nosotros mismos, entre la racionalidad científica y nuestros afectos profundo
Translation - English In our time, we’ve moved from the age of reason to the age of emotions, although we still retain confidence in scientific rationale to solve practical problems. For instance, the advances in medicine are spectacular. There’s no doubt about the relevance of medical science or information technology knowledge. But science doesn’t provide any answers when dealing with more profound questions about existence, our origin and destiny, our sentimental relationships, life and death, good and evil. So on incontrovertible issues to do with the human condition, we experience intense emotions that well up unexpectedly from the core of experience.
If we lack words to observe and work with these experiences, we still have a great need for images and myths that express our emotions. According to Francis George Steiner, the influential European-born American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, translator, and educator, the fall of logos brings with it a rupture between word and world, a still present tendency evident at least since the beginning of the 20th century. What was born in erudite and artistic circles has become common currency. These days we see how the collective self-image portrayed by the media is filled with icons and new mythologies, given the void created between the world and how we represent it, whether verbally or theoretically, and within ourselves, caught between scientific rationality and our deepest emotions.
Spanish to English (Institute of Translation and Interpreting, verified) English (The College of Teachers - TESOL Diploma, verified) French (University of Essex, verified) French to English (University of Essex)
I am an accredited member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (MITI), ISO 17100 certified translator with a BA in Language (French) and Linguistics. English is my native language and I speak fluent Spanish. I returned to the UK in 2011 after being resident in Nicaragua for 17 years where I worked as a translator and interpreter since 2005, mostly for international and local development organisations and envío, a Central American journal of political analysis and information.
I work mainly in the areas of business, medical/pharmaceutical, clinical trials and contracts. I am used to working to tight deadlines while delivering quality translations and have an eye for detail.
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