Category: English

Posted in English

Untranslatable

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I like how this sentence is something that wouldn’t really make sense at all in English. You could say it of course, but it wouldn’t make as much sense in a language where we don’t really learn verb conjugations because our verbs are so straightforward.

He’s talking about those times in our lies when we do something for the first time ever – the first time you kiss someone, the first time you go out on your own and so on. In this paragraph, he goes onto say that those things don’t always work out as we might expect, and hoped-for first kiss turns into the first rejection.

And to do that he says the verbs “querer” and “ter” are conjugated with very different endings. I like that!

The book is Aqui Dentro Faz Muito Barulho by Bruno Nogueira

Posted in English

Tira-Teimas

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I keep seeing the expression “Tira-Teimas” pop up in my socials. Mainly, it’s on these short videos from The Voice Portugal. What can it mean?

Well, apparently, it can mean “objeto ou meio com que se castigam os teimosos” Er… Ok, that’s a very specific thing to have a phrase for, but sure. That’s clearly not what it means here though. I think the relevant definition here is “acontecimento ou circunstância que funciona como desenlace, pondo fim a disputa, competição ou controvérsia”. So a tie-breaker then? Hm, not quite that, because that would normally only involve two people. So maybe some sort of final battle where they shake out some of ghe weaker candidates and get it down to the finalists then? Something like that I think. I certainly don’t fancy watching the whole show to find out, I’m afraid, but I think that’s the gist of it.

There seems to be a brand of disgusting looking crisps called Tira-Teimas as well. I’m not sure why. Do people punish stubborn children with wheat-based snacks?

Posted in English

Airlearn Grifters

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I posted a video on here of someone crying while trying to pronounce Portuguese. I realised later that she was just doing viral marketing, hyping up an app called Airlearn.

Since then, I’ve had loads more videos of people doing the same kinds of viral shenanigans. The best known is am American woman who has an elaborate story about how she went to visit her Portuguese boyfriend’s family and could tell they were being rude about her, even though she couldn’t speak Portuguese. LOL, yeah, because colloquial European Portuguese is soooo easy for an outsider to understand! The denouement is that she uses Airlearn to become fluent in Brazilian portuguese. Why Brazilian? Well, because she knew they would hate that because they are so racist. Not because Airlearn doesn’t even teach European Portuguese, oh no no no. Then a few weeks later she goes back and cusses them out in their own language. There were loads of aspects of the story that just didn’t make sense, and it also seemed like an infuriating slander on the Portuguese and their hospitality. Some people were saying she was native Brazilian anyway, so the whole thing was a con, and the video seems to have been deleted now.

So I was really happy to see this Instagram reel and even shared it on my own story… But then I clicked on her profile and I found out she’s an Airlearn shill too. This is a whole other dimension – the inception of rage bait marketing.

Anyway, this is all by way of saying I think we should just agree amongst ourselves to ignore Airlearn because they are a bunch of unscrupulous twats. If you’re looking for an app, start here instead.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Ol´ Heron-Tits is Back

Posted on by Colin Lusk

One more thing about Inês de Castro before I change the subject: She is often referred to in poetry as “colo de garça”. A garça is a heron, and colo is a funny little word that doesn’t have an exact match in english. The first and third meanings given by Priberam both refer to the upper part of the bust, but there are others indicating the upper part of the chest below the neck, and also the lap… It often comes up when talking about babies – they are “no colo”, in other words cradled in a pair of arms or sat in someone’s lap, being held by a parent – and it has a bunch of figurative senses too, relating to being welcomed with open arms, cared for, looked after and protected.

Colo de Garça

But being me, after a brief period, I asked reddit

Porque é que vários poetas chamam Inês de Castro de “colo de garça”? Uma garça=uma ave, não é? E colo de garça é um elogio porquê? Fiz uma pesquisa (ou seja googlei) e nesta página existem 3 teorias:

Tinha um pescoço esbelto como uma garça (adoro mas nunca antes ouvi alguém a dizer “colo” para referir ao pescoço)

Tinha seios brancos como o peito de uma garça (mais natural mas se alguém chamasse um inglesa de “heron tits”, garanto-vos que não seria um elogio)

Era vista como uma prostituta pelos nobres (provável, mas como origem da expressão, é duvidoso na minha opinião)

Será que alguém sabe mais? Ou tem uma teoria ainda mais rebuscado?

Recebi poucas respostas mas ao que parece a primeira versão – pescoço esbelto – é muito acreditável.

Posted in English

Crónica: Tradução

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I’m having trouble focusing on this poem, which I mentioned in yesterday’s post about Pedro and Inês, and holding it in my head while translating, long enough to take it all in so I’m going to write out a translation of the five pages I have in English. I can’t find a version of it online other than this which only really allows you to see a tiny piece at a time so if you want the original you’ll need to buy it like a decent upstanding citizen.

CAPÍTULO XXVII

COMO ELREI DOM PEDRO DE PURTUGAL DISSE POR DONA ENES QUE FORA SUA MOLHER REÇEBIDA E DA MANEIRA QUE ELLO TEVE

How I predicted the night. How many times.
How many times I rested on the deep darkness
Or your sleep only noticing one or another small sound
By night I search for your earthly now
That tiny god-space* like those ships ate deserted
Like everything is strange to anything that lives. Under the night here
I enclose the secret of these rites,
Taking apart this, my bodily landscape
Feeding an ancient glow
Hair I understood. I say nothing, this time must be valued
Little by little I renounce the sun
For the water of your eyes

I have to wait so long. This death happens slowly
I have no hunger, thirst or desire
I just come back by another road
These ships are ours
The little greyhound that sits here
Was the one that was born out of the cold we learned about

Tonight I lost myself in your fingers
I repeated your steps walking not
as fast as you wanted
that before the sunrise we would say it

See how the landscape changes. I don’t even find despair
and how many times I say I don’t have anyone here
Only this ship, undoubtedly the most beautiful
To show you.

Apparently nothing changed but in truth everything changed
A wind passed me by like the wake
of gulls on the surface of the sea
These stones in place, these arches covered in limes
Your absence drawn by a stone
Walking toward me

I don’t remember any more
My memory has swept itself clean of your face under the work of hands
And however many times I say
You can’t bear alteration

It’s late. The moon is dying. I let myself sleep.

COMO ELREI DOM PEDRO DE PURTUGAL DISSE POR DONA ENES QUE FORA SUA MOLHER REÇEBIDA E DA MANEIRA QUE ELLO TEVE

The day on which the arrival of summer was announced
The month of June, I tried to hear, drom the valley
The singing and the shouts that say the arrival of the traveller
By words of the present

Maybe I won’t find you again while this body
Stays until the time of your death
There won’t be movement. How will I be able? If
I have to separate destruction in myself

You will have to set out to find me. By the road and in the course of centuries
Those who will come to life, what part of them will come to be the same,

We are alone. Without a third person let alone more
While the night is what we alone open – that
By night you wait, seeming like earth, the earth itself in the nighttime still

Over time I will bring as much as you need. A long time ago
Chance had no part in our meeting, searching for the
Most distant, the thing that grows. It’s what I want to tell you
Far from trying at each step the beginning or the reliable piety
For sustenance over the years. The lack of response will never
Cease to pursue me. Reply to me.

We feel the pain, the knowledge the causes the forms
The things break like everything and what remains stands out
The difference, the meaning among the innovation
The inception in the act and in the wanting. The wise
finality of existence.
The end is to know you. Nothing else. I see you watching me
Even in the mirror of the sword blades, eroded
By rust, by so much

The sun still hasn’t set

There are men who think a lot. I don’t know if they bring a joyful heart to their work with the stone. They greet us and offer consultations. Nobody contradicts them. They don’t have the one thing I need to win: Your praise.

Nothing erases it from my memory. Because
I imitated the acts. I bring them with me. I guard them.
It’s a small thing.

Please, repeat with me the song:
The eyes are light
And anyone who stares into them
Has the rain, the sun,
That he requires

The current emphasises
the green, the green of your eyes.

* “esse mínimo espaço deus” – sounds like it should mean something but I’m not sure what! Deus isn’t capitalised so I am taking it as him meaning the space has some sort of godlike power, rather than it being some sort of space for God

Oof. I probably could have written a lot more footnotes for that one because there are lots of lines that make little sense to me.

Posted in English

I See Tiago Bettencourt is Coming to the Jazz Café Soon!

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Tickets here. Definitely going. My wife is working and my daughter (who really enjoys his version of “Cancão de Engate“) will be in Dundee so I’ll be in my own. I see I’ve done a couple of translations of his songs before but one was a cover version (the aforementioned Canção de Engate) and one was sort of mid, as the young folk say (Morena). I must do one of his really good ones – maybe Laços or Carta from when he was in Toranja. Yeah, Carta seems like I need to look at it because the video has a slightly kidnapper vibe about it and I want to reassure myself that poor girl is OK.

Tiago Bettencourt
Posted in English, Portuguese

Inter-City Rivalry

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This song was released a year ago but I haven’t got around to translating it. It was written by Capicua, who says on Instagram that Ana Bacalhau had challenged her to write a sort of “Let’s Call The Whole Thing off” based on different ways of speaking between Lisboa and Porto.

Hm, I thought it would be fun to translate but now I think it might be a struggle. It’s mainly giving words that mean the same in the two cities, so the translations will all be like “cheese is cheese” won’t they? Oh god… oh well, let’s see how it goes.

In the orange corner, representing Lisboa, Ana “I used to be in Deolinda, you know” Bacalhau and in the green corner, representing Porto, Cláudia “I made a forgettable Eurovision song” Pascoal.

Imperial é Fino

PortuguêsIngês
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
Que algo se perde na nossa tradução?
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
Ó bacalhau, eu vou-te explicar
Hum, conta!		Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
That something gets lost in our translation
Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
Hey, Bacalhau, I’m going explain to you
Er… bill please!
Dizes que não tens qualquer sotaque
Isto não é um ataque, mas tens falta de noção
E depois dizes
Pra não ser de surpresa
Eu tufono-te às dezoito pra marcar a reunião
Olha quem fala, tu dizes à minha beira
Com pronúncia da ribeira quando estás ao pé de mim
Dizes pega em vez de toma
Dizes bufa em vez de sopra, olha a lana, gola ialta e coisa assim		You say you don’t have an accent
This isn’t an attack but you’ve no clue
And then you say
For it not to be a surprise,
I should “tuphone” you at 6PM to arrange the meeting
Look who’s talking, you say “à minha beira”
With your ribeira accent when you’re next to me
You say grab instead of take
You say puff instead of blow, “look at IAna“, “gola ialta”* and things like that
Imperial é fino, tênis é sapatilha
Bica é cimbalino, chicla é pastilha
Aloquete é cadeado, e capuz, carapuço
Estrugido é refogado, chapéu de chuva é chuço
Se trolha é pedreiro, bueiro é sarjeta
Sertã é frigideira e cabide é cruzeta		Beer is beer, Trainer is trainer
Espresso is espresso, chewing gum is chewing gum
Padlock is padlock, Hood is hood
Fried is fried, umbrella is umbrella
Stonemason is stonemason, gutter is gutter
Saucepan is saucepan and hatstand is hatstand**
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
Que algo se perde na nossa tradução?
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
E mais te digo!
Oh pá!		Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
That something gets lost in our translation
Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
And another thing
Oh blimey!
Já tu dizes são quaise treuze
E já ouvi várias vezes tira o téni do sófá
O lisboeta come letras
Tira o u pra dizer pôco, diz óviste, é muita lôco
Assim não dá!
Tretas, pra ti mãe tem cinco letras
Dizer cumo é o cúmulo e tu sabes que assim é
Tu dizes testo e eu tampa
Eu digo coxo e tu manco e quando dizes tótil, eu bué		You just say it’s arlmust thorteen
And I’ve heard a few times take your shoe off the sófá
Lisboetas swallow letters
Takes the U away t say pôco, say óviste and very lôco
It’s no good like that
Rubbish! For you, mum has 5 letters
To say “cumo” is the accumulation and you know that’s how it is
You say lid and I say lid
I say lame and you lame and when yiou say tótil***, I say bué
Imperial é fino, tênis é sapatilha
Bica é cimbalino, chicla é pastilha
Aloquete é cadeado, e capuz, carapuço
Estrugido é refugado, chapéu de chuva é chuço
Se trolha é pedreiro, bueiro é sarjeta
Sertã é frigideira e cabide é cruzeta		Beer is beer, Trainer is trainer
Espresso is espresso, chewing gum is chewing gum
Padlock is padlock, Hood is hood
Fried is fried, umbrella is umbrella
Stonemason is stonemason, gutter is gutter
Saucepan is saucepan and hatstand is hatstand
Contigo o tão vira tom, contigo o são vira som
E depois bom vira bão
Pra mim o v vira b, para ti lesboa é com e
Oblá e então?
Ouve, não sou eu que falo torto, toda a gente me entende
Não é meu o defeito
S’eu falo à porto é meu direito e se o teu ouvido é mouco
O meu sotaque é perfeito
Se digo fala bem é pra tu seres meiguinha
Como eu sou também, no meu jeito alfacinha
E quando eu digo “bem” eu tou-te a dizer para “bires”
E eu até te falo bem, só é pena não me ouvires
E quando eu digo vem eu tou-te a dizer para vires
E eu até te falo bem, só é pena não me ouvires		With you, tão becomes tom, with you são becomes som
And then bom becomes bão
With me, the V becomes a B, for you Lesboa is with an E
Oblá so what?
It’s not me that talks weird. Everyone understands
It’s not my problem
If I speak Porto-style, it’s my right
And if your ear is deaf
My accent is perfect
If I say speak properly it’s just to make you more amenable
Like me, with my Alfacinha style
And when I say well, I’m just doing it to make you come to me****
And I speak really well. It’s just a shame you can’t hear me.
And when I say come I’m saying you should come.
And I speak really well. It’s just a shame you can’t hear me.
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
Que algo se perde na nossa tradução?
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
Imperial é fino, imperial é fino
Imperial é fino, imperial é fino, fino, fino-
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?
Que algo se perde na nossa tradução?
Ah, e quê?
Ah, então?
Ah, o quê?		Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
That something gets lost in our translation
Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
Beer is beer, Beer is beer
Beer is beer, Beer is beer
Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?
That something gets lost in our translation
Ah, and what?
Ah, so?
Ah, what?

*I couldn’t work out what was going on here so I asked about it on Insta and Capicua herself answered my question! Apparently in Porto if one word ends in A and the next word starts in A, they put an I in between so Olha a IAna = Olha a Ana, Gola Ialta = Gola Alta (a polo neck or turtle neck). I like Portugal. I’m pretty sure an equivalently famous person in Britain wouldn’t take time out to explain linguistic quirks to old farts on Instagram!

**Did somebody say hatstand?

***How have i never seen this word before?

****Not sure about this, My reasoning is that it’s vires (personal infinitive of vir) with the v changed to a b. I don’t know if the next-but-one line confirms or refutes the theory though!