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English to Spanish: A Figure Like Your Father General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - English A FIGURE LIKE YOUR FATHER
By Rick Joines
WE are in his new house, taking a break from unpacking boxes, moving furniture, and hanging golf art, and my father is telling a story. He holds his arm up, gesturing with his hand,A to illustrate something the dogs did on their morning walk. My eyes follow his watch as it falls down his wrist, almost to his elbow. He is wearing a “Mean Green” short-sleeved T-shirt, one of the many he’s bought at the thrift store since moving to town. His insulated stainless steel tumbler sits beside him. It’s the only thing not sweating on this hot August day, the last before another semester begins, and I have to get back to work.
I hadn’t noticed how lose his watch was until then. Or if I had, it was with a sort of maintenance glance one gives family. His skin is thin as crepe paper. Wrinkles fold into amorphous brown-black bruises, the kind the elderly get as blood thinner flows through their veins. My old man’s arm, I think.
My parents moved from Tennessee to Texas in the middle of summer. “To be near my only son,” my dad repeated to anyone who asked. There had to be at least one good reason to exchange the beauty of seasons, green trees, and rolling hills for flat, brown, oven-blasted scrub. Decades of belongings, padded or packed into boxes, stacked into moving pods. His Brentwood house was sold before I heard the story of how he yelled at the cute blonde pharmacist.
Translation - Spanish UN PERSONAJE COMO TU PADRE
Rick Joines
Estamos en su nueva casa, tomando un descanso después de haber desempacado las cajas, movido muebles y colgado arte de golf, y mi padre está contando una historia. Levanta el brazo y hace un gesto con la mano para mostrar algo que hicieron los perros en su paseo matutino. Mis ojos siguen su reloj mientras se desliza por su muñeca casi hasta su codo. Lleva una camiseta de manga corta que dice «Mean Green», una de las muchas que ha comprado en la tienda de segunda mano desde que se mudó a la ciudad. Su taza térmica de acero inoxidable está a su lado. Es lo único que no suda en este caluroso día de agosto, el último antes de que comience otro semestre y tenga que volver al trabajo.
No me había dado cuenta de lo suelto que estaba su reloj hasta entonces. O si lo hice, fue como uno de esos vistazos repentinos que uno le da a la familia. Su piel es fina como papel crepé. Las arrugas se pliegan en amorfos de color marrón negruzco, del tipo que los ancianos tienen cuando les fluye la sangre fina por sus venas. «El brazo de mi viejo», pensé.
Mis padres se mudaron de Tennessee a Texas a mediados del verano. “Para estar cerca de mi único hijo”, mi papá le repetía a todo el que preguntaba. Tenía que al menos haber una buena razón para hacer un cambio de la belleza estacional, los árboles verdes y colinas onduladas por un matorral plano ardiente y marchito. Mi padre traía décadas de pertenencias, acolchadas o empaquetadas en cajas, y apiladas en contenedores móviles. Su casa en Brentwood fue vendida antes de que escuchara la historia de cómo le gritó a la rubia y guapa farmacéutica.
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Bio
Experienced, native Spanish tutor from Latin America, completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Translation at the Open University and a Certificate in Post-compulsory Education at the University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. I am based in the county of Buckinghamshire, England and I have been living here for the past 30 years.I have taught the Spanish language since 2004 to children, young adults and adults to all levels in a formal and informal settings. During this time I translated private documents, and I worked in a media organisation translating press cutting documents.Prior to this, I worked in a telecommunications company for seven years and as an office support in various companies including the Open University UK.
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