…I’ve still got this on my phone. I must have another go at it.
Category: English
Efe(c)tivamente
O blogue de hoje é mais uma tradução. O título não segue o acordo ortográfico mas não me importa. A palavra “efe(c)tivamente” é cognata com a palavra inglesa “effectively” mas tem um valor ligeiramente diferente porque é usada muitas vezes em situações nas quais usamos “really”. Lê a segunda definição nesta página para mais informações.
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Adoro o campo as árvores e as flores Jarros e perpétuos amores Que fiquem perto da esplanada de um bar Pássaros estúpidos a esvoaçar Adoro as pulgas dos cães Todos os bichos do mato O riso das crianças dos outros Cágados de pernas para o ar | I love the field, the trees, the flowers Jugs and everlasting loves That are close to the tables of a bar Stupid birds, fluttering I love the dogs’ fleas All the woodland creatures The laugh of children and others Terrapins with their legs in the air |
| Efectivamente escuto as conversas Importantes ou ambíguas Aparentemente sem moralizar | Effectively, I listen to important and ambiguous conversations Apparently without moralising. |
| Adoro as pegas e os pederastas que passam Finjo nem reparar Na atitude tão clara e tão óbvia De quem anda a enganar Adoro esses ratos de esgoto Que disfarçam ao pilar Como se fossem mafiosos convictos Habituados a controlar | I love the whores* and the pederasts who pass by I pretend not to notice In the clear, obvious attitude Of one who is being deceptive I love those sewer rats Who hide behind the pillar As if they were convicted mafiosos Used to being iin control |
| Efectivamente gosto de aparência Imponente ou inequívoca Aparentemente sem moralizar | Effectively I like imposing or unequivocal appearance Apparently without moralising |
| Efectivamente gosto de aparência Aparentemente sem moralizar Aparentemente escuto as conversas | Effectively I like appearance apparently without moralising Apparently I listen to conversation |
| Efectivamente sem moralizar Efectivamente, sem moralizar Aparentemente, sem moralizar Efectivamente | Effectively without moralising Effectively, wothout moralising Apparently, without moralising Effectively |
*This could be translated a few different ways but I guess this is the one he means, unless the paedos were chasing a magpie!
A Couple of Unrelated Blatherings
Writing this lot out so I remember it.
Plantention
Niche point about the difference between planning to do a thing and intending to do a thing. I recently had an exercise to paraphrase the following snippet
“visa colocar o país”
It’s obviously not a full sentence so it’s a little difficult to do. “Visa” here doesn’t mean a visa you use to get into a country, it’s part of “visar”, which means “aim”, either literally (aiming a weapon) or in the sense of intending or having an objective.
So a good translation would be something like “intends to put the country” (in the original, it was followed by something like “…on a path toward sporting success”). Well, I suppose I was thinking something like that needs a long term strategy, or, if you like, a plan, so the word I used in place of “visa” was “planeia”. That’s not precise enough though. Planear is about the journey to get to your objective, and visar is more to do with your intention.
Better synonyms of visar would have been “pretender”, “tencionar” or “objetivar”
O Papel Absorvente
I also had to come up with a synonym for “o papel absorvente”. You’re obviously supposed to think of aborbent paper like kitchen towel (as opposed to papel higiénico, which is toilet paper), but it’s a trick! Papel can also mean “role”, and in the context “a escola assume um papel muito absorvente na vida deles” (from here) it was saying that school occupied a role in their lives that absorbed a lot of their attention and free time.
Status
I said something about “estado social” intending to say “social status”, but it means “social state”. The word for status is actually “status”, which is weird becuse you don’t get many words in portuguese that start with st-. But there you have it: status social.
Equipa/e
I knew “equipe” was a “francesismo”*, but I was a bit thrown by seeing it used in the wild so I looked up both equipe and equipa in Priberam. The lexicographers haven’t really been very helpful in explaining it, but the TL;DR is that yes, equipa is the preferred spelling. It’s just that the frenchified version is allowed and is sometimes used. I suppose it’s like cafe/café in english. É doesn’t really exist in our alphabet, so cafe is the closest standard english spelling but nobody is going to have an aneurism if you bust out an accent.
Homem Rico vs Rico Homem; Velha Casa vs Casa Velha
Um rico homem seems to mean “a good/valued man” as opposed to just a rich man. It’s the eighth definition on Priberam, although they use it for netos rather than homens. A question on Wordreference Forums refers to a blog (sarcastically?) asking of José Socrates is “um rico homem ou um homem rico” but I can’t find the original.
There’s also an old-fashioned expression “rico-homem“. with a hyphen, which seems to mean a member of the nobility.
Velha casa seems to be more deprecative, meaning outmoded or old fashioned, as opposed to simply old. This meaning of velho is the fourth one in Priberam, but they use it with technology rather than houses. My sense is that this one isn’t as clear-cut. I don’t see many references or explainers, and it’s translated all sorts of ways in Linguee.
*Which sounds like it should mean “earthquake in Paris” but actually just means a word or phrase borrowed from french, just like anglicismo means a word or phrase borrowed from english.
New Things I’m Thinking of Trying.
I’m going to make more of an effort to work on my spoken Portuguese, probably adopting some of the tips on this guy’s video, to work on my listening comprehension and my accent & rhythm of speech.
I occasionally tune in to what Internet polyglots are saying. Some of it is a bit wanky but sometimes they have really good ideas to give my routine a bit of a shake-up, and this video has lots of stealable material in it.
Important note to self: do it with portuguese though, not Swedish.
B👄cas
I’m still watching videos from the occasionally excellent improv music show, Canta-me Uma História.
One of the things they often say during the live shows is “Não Mandem Bocas”. It’s used in the theme song and in the host’s t-shirt. So what does it mean? Don’t send mouths? Eh?
A boca, in this context, is a criticism. Specifically, a low-effort, smartarse remark. It’s the eleventh definition on Priberam – “comentário provocatório ou crítico”. So basically, a heckle. The audience has access to a big screen at the back of the stage and they can use it for requests and messages, so it seems they have a rule not to spoil the vibe by shit-talking the performers while they’re half way through some parody number they’ve written.
Bad Jokes That Aren’t Even That Original
I made what I thought was a good pun today and then I realise that it was a variation on one I’d already heard and now I feel like a fraud.
Falem Agora
I don’t know how this song by Fábia Rebordão ended up on my playlist, but Spotify is convinced it’s something I should listen to. Good shout, Spotify, it’s pretty good. The theme is not wanting to listen to malicious gossip. It’s light and fluffy and fun to listen to.
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Não ouço essas conversas Isso é banal Por serem tão perversas Fazem-me mal | I don’t listen to those conversations That’s boring By being so perverse They make me ill |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem, deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
| Conversas de café Não quero ter Falar de outros não é Só mau dizer | Conversations over coffee I don’t want to have To talk about others, it’s not Just nasty talk |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
| Quem diz que viu, quem mente Essas coisinhas Nas costas de outra gente Eu vejo as minhas | Whoever said they saw, whoever lied Those little things Behind other people’s backs I watch mine |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
| Um caso mal contado E outros que tais Desligo passo ao lado Leio jornais | A badly explained case And so on I switch off and step aside I read the newspapers |
| Falem agora Que eu estou por fora, e até já Não se incomodem deixem lá Que eu já estou fora | Speak now I’m outside and for the time being Don’t bother, it doesn’t matter Because I’m outside |
Armar(-se) Ao
I’ve come across phrases like “Armar-se em valente” before, where “armar em” means put on a show. So armar-se em valente might be making a big show of what a heroic figure you are (shortly before being flattened) but I came across a slightly different version the other day: armar aos cucos. There are variations too: Armar aos cágados and Armar ao pingarelho. These all seem to mean more-or-less the same thing: to make yourself the centre of attention – for example by giving a huge tip (the example I saw at first) or by having an eye-catching look like in this make-up tutorial.
I Think I’ve Mentioned This Before Haven’t I?
There are still a few tickets left and they’re pretty cheap if you’re in or around London and fancy a night of Fado on the 17th.
I’m hoping she’ll bring Pedro Abrunhosa with her but it seems like a bit of a long shot. You never know though. When we saw Mariza a few years ago she had a whole host of stars in her retinue.
Casei Com Uma Velha
This song is actually by Maximiano de Sousa (aka “Max”) but I don’t think there’s a video of him performing it so I went with this cover by Raul Solnado instead. Max is from Funchal, and he says his wife is from Ponta do Sol, a few miles up the south coast. Another nearby town – Camacha – is mentioned too.
As you can see – or maybe you can’t – Solnado is wearing a hat that I recognise as a Maderian style, and I think the clothes are specific to the island too. The set shows a traditional house and I’m pretty sure the musical instruments the guys at the back are using are Brinquinhos*. Solnado is a mainlander from Lisbon so this is definitely cultural appropriation and he would be cancelled if he did this today. Quite right too. Throw him in jail!
I am publishing this on the 3rd of February to commemorate the birthday of another island girl – my wife. Since my birthday is on the 6th of May, she is numerically an older woman for the next 3 months. Feliz Aniversário, velha linda!
| Portuguese | English |
|---|---|
| Casei c’uma velha Da ponta do sol Deitei-a na cama e o raio da velha rasgou-me o lençol Tornei-a a deitar Tornou a rasgar Perdi a cabeça e atirei co’a velha de perna p’ró ar | I married an old lady From Ponta do Sol I laid her in bed but that blasted old lady Tore my sheet** I laid her down again She ripped the sheets again I lost my head and threw the old lady and she landed upside down |
| A tua mãe foi às lapas O teu pai aos caranguejos Ficaste sozinha em casa, fui*** dar-te abraços e beijos Ó menina da Camacha Diz de mim o que quiseres Menos que não tenho jeito p’ra agasalhar as mulheres | Your mother went to the limpets Your dad to the crabs You stayed at home alone, I went to give you hugs and kisses Oh girl of Camacha Tell me what you want from me Unless I’m just don’t have the knack of taking care of women |
*More about traditional Madeiran instruments here if you’re interested.
**I had a little trouble following the action here: When he says “rasgou-me o lençol” did she actually make a hole in the sheets or just tear them away from him? I checked on r/portuguese just to be sure and it’s the former. And then how am I supposed to understand “atirei (com a) velha“? Is he throwing himself on her? No, apparently not. “Atirar com” isn’t in my handy guide to verbs with prepositions, but “atirar-se a” is, and that means to throw yourself at someone in an attack. No, my informant told me atirei com means that he just threw, shoved or otherwise propelled the old lady away. The “com” emphasises the force and “brusquidão” of the “sova” or “arremesso” he gave her (3 new items in the word hoard!), so she ended up “de pernas para o ar” – upside down. Probably not literally, but it wasn’t a graceful landing. Hmm… I think it’s one of those songs that’s really fun to listen to but just try not too hard to think about what it is he’s actually describing.
UPDATE – Well, i was joking about the violence and really imagining it as a kind of slapstick scene, but I am told I should consider it might be much more suggestive. That the legs in the air and the ripping of sheets and the warming up of the women could all be interpreted as taking about his sexual prowess, broadcast in an age when you couldn’t really say this sort of things directly. OK, well, that gives a whole new spin on things!
***Online lyrics say “foi” but I think that’s a typo because it doesn’t make any sense. Oh wait, it says fui in the subtitles doesn’t it! Oh well, glad to know I was right about that!
Luso 