Category: English

Posted in English, Portuguese

A Tempestade e o Aguaceiro

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This is a short little text that got marked by both Talures and Dani Morgenstern who both pointed out some interesting mistakes in my sloppy way of talking about the weather, spawning a further post to try and straighten it out:

Amanhã, planeamos em dar um passeio até ao centro da cidade e depois para um parque onde um filme que gostamos foi realizado. Infelizmente amanhã haverá um aguaceiro. ☔

So what’s wrong with this? Well, it probably stems from the fact that I had been thinking of aguaceiro as being equivalent to “downpour”. It’s not. It’s a short, sharp downpour, no more than 30 minutes. The shortness is part of the definition. So weather forecasts usually predict the likelihood of heavy showers (“para amanhã prevê-se aguaceiros”) rather than one specific cats-and-dogs event at a specific time/place. That was the first discordant note. The singularity. But beyond that, there’s the idea that aguaceiros were “storms”. One of the correctors joked that the met office were covering all bases: if it rained a lot, it was a storm, if it didn’t rain much it was just “aquaceiros”.

On top of that, “haverá um aguaceiro” sounds too definite, as if the met office knows for a certainty what the weather will be. Colloquially, “dá aguaceiros para amanhã” tells you that there are likely to be some. Weather is notoriously hard to predict, after all!

So I had to ask for clarification…

Há uns dias, escrevi um texto sobre “um aguaceiro”, mas não entendi os comentários todos (não me admira: regra geral, entendo pouco) Este texto é uma forma de pensar em voz alta sobre os significados de duas palavras. Escrevi-o nos comentários ao texto original mas acho que é comprido o suficiente para ser um texto em si.

……

Tempestade vs aguaceiro
This sort of thing doesn’t exactly help

Está claro que há alguma coisa aqui que não entendi bem. Achava que “um aguaceiro” significava “um período de chuva forte”, portanto “se chover pouco foi um aguaceiro” deixou-me confuso, mas depois de estudar a definição no Priberam com mais atenção, é forte *mas também passageiro*. Então é uma incidência de chuva que começa e termina de forma brusca. Em Inglaterra, não temos uma palavra específica para isso. Existem algumas semelhantes, mas não existe um sinónimo exato.

Então… Depois de ter lido mais, um aguaceiro é uma chatice que encharca a roupa* de alguém que não tem guarda-chuva, mas, se se tratar de uma tempestade, a chuva virá sob a forma de uma chuvada ou pelo menos uma sequência de aguaceiros… e ventos e trovões e granizo do tamanho de ovos de avestruz e a lua a transformar-se em sangue e o anjo da morte a reclamar as vidas dos primogénitos e aí por diante.

É mais ou menos isto?

And yes, yes it is.

* =singular not plural

Posted in English

As Fresh as a Lettuce.

Posted on by Colin Lusk

This sentence, from Mary John, a no by Ana Pessoa, is one of those idiomatic ways of saying something that doesn’t make sense unless you know. The “que nem” is just doing the same job as the word “como”. It’s used in compairons of the kind that in English would be rendered as “As strong as an ox” or “as fit as a fiddle”

“Eu estava fresca que nem uma alface”. They think she’s dead but she’s “as fresh as a lettuce.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Quero Ser Um Ecrã

Posted on by Colin Lusk

It’s time for another translation! This isn’t your avô’s fado, it’s a bit noisier and punkier than most of theportuguese music I’ve heard. “Quero Ser Um Ecrã” by Baleia Baleia Baleia

This is obviously about screens, and it could be any time of electronic screen, but I think it’s mostly used for handheld devices – which is presumably why they’ve got all the spectators in the video to film the whole thing and view it through their screens instead of just watching the performance. Screen is “Ecrã” in this sense. Masculine, despite the a at the end. I gather if it was a PC screen, that would be “monitor”, but tela and visor are also in use for similar kinds of surfaces – I just don’t hear them so often (Brazilian? Slang?). There’s also the word “biombo” which is the kind of screen you might find in a doctor’s surgery for example, for people to have privacy during procedures. Anyway, none of that – we’re thinking social media, mobile phones – all that stuff – happening on a screen.

Quero Ser um EcrãI want to be a screen
E a vida, a morte, em fotos no ecrã
Os dias compridos e os olhos no ecrã
O mundo perdido, achado no ecrã
Quero ser um ecrã
E os sonhos dos outros cumpridos no ecrã
O monstro do visível escondido do ecrã
Quero ser um ecrã, quero ser um ecrã		And life, death, in photos on the screen
The short days and the eyes on the screen
The lost world, found on the screen
I want to be a screen
And other people’s dreams, accomplished on the screen
The monster of what’s visible, hidden on the screen
I want to be a screen, I want to be a screen.
E as balas que nunca passam do ecrã
A força dos gritos, regulável no ecrã
As lendas e os mitos, imortais no ecrã
Quero ser um ecrã
Medos e incertezas no armário do ecrã
Celulite e flacidez no ginásio do ecrã
Quero ser um ecrã, quero ser um ecrã		And the bullets that never pass through the screen
The force of the screams, adjustable on the screen
The legends and the myths, immortal on the screen
I want to be a screen
Fears and uncertainties in the closet of the screen
Celulite and flabbiness in the gymnasium of the screen
I want to be a screen, I want to be a screen
[Ponte]
E é sempre verão no ecrã
E os corpos estão sempre nús
E há tantos gatinhos no ecrã
E sushi
E bolinhos
E coisas boas		[Bridge]
And it’s always summer on the screen
And the bodies are always naked
And there are so many kittens on the screen
And sushi
And little cakes
And good things
[Hook]
Quero ser um ecrã (x13)		[Hook]
I want to be a screen (x13)
Posted in English, Portuguese

Povo que Lavas No Rio

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Translation time! This one is a classic fado, which is mentioned in the book I reviewed the day before yesterday. It also gives us some insight into the Portuguese language’s radical commitment to singular verb endings for collective nouns. The video is majestic and well worth watching, even with the sound off, for the glances between the guitarist and the guy on the guitarra portuguesa. I’d love to know what was going on between them. The song itself is written by Amália but it is really more of an adaptation of a longer poem called “Povo” by Pedro Homem de Mello.

First of all, I think we’re meant to envision people washing their clothes in the river, rather than skinnydipping, in case that’s not obvious! But let’s focus in on how she refers to the noun “povo” here. I’ve highlighted the relevant words in the first verse. As you can se, she’s addressing the “povo” (the people – especially the simple, common people) as “Tu”. In other words, she’s addressing them all, collectively, using the form normally reserved for one singular person who’s familiar to the speaker.

This was really jarring to me. Of course, it’s not that hard to find people referring to “a gente” using third person singular pronouns – I wrote about this a couple of months back – and the portuguese generally take a firmer line on treating the collective as one singular entity (as opposed to using words like eles/them) than we would in english. But to see her speaking directly to the people like this and just address the whoel population like it was her little sister is quite a cultural leap, at least for me.

Povo que lavas no rioPeople who wash in the river
Povo que lavas no rio
Que talhas com teu machado
As tábuas do meu caixão
Povo que lavas no rio
Que talhas com teu machado
As tábuas do meu caixão

Pode** haver quem te defenda
Que compre o teu chão sagrado
Mas a tua vida não		People who wash in the river
Who cut with your axe
The boards for my coffin*
People who wash in the river
Who cut with your axe
The boards for my coffin

There might be people who defend you
Who buy your sacred land
But not your life
Fui ter à mesa redonda
Beber em malga que esconda
Um beijo de mão em mão
Fui ter à mesa redonda
Beber em malga que esconda
Um beijo de mão em mão

Era o vinho que me deste
Água pura, fruto agreste
Mas a tua vida não		I ended up at the round table***
To drink from a bowl that hides
A kiss from hand to hand
I ended up at the round table
To drink from a bowl that hides
A kiss from hand to hand

It was the wine you gave me
Pure water, wild fruit
But not your life
Aromas de urze e de lama
Dormi com eles na cama
Tive a mesma condição
Aromas de urze e de lama
Dormi com eles na cama
Tive a mesma condição

Povo, povo eu te pertenço
Deste-me alturas de incenso
Mas a tua vida não		Scents of heather and dirt
I slept with them in the bed
I was in the same condition.
Scents of heather and dirt
I slept with them in the bed
I was in the same condition.

People, people, I belong to you
You gave me moments of incense****
But not your life
Ai, povo que lavas no rio
Que talhas com teu machado
As tábuas do meu caixão
Povo que lavas no rio
Que talhas com teu machado
As tábuas do meu caixão

Há-de haver quem te defenda
Quem compre o teu chão sagrado
Mas a tua vida não		People who wash in the river
Who cut with your axe
The boards for my coffin
People who wash in the river
Who cut with your axe
The boards for my coffin

There might be people who defend you
Who buy your sacred land
But not your life

*=Could this be more emo?

**=Some versionf oe the lyrics use “ha-de” in place of “pode” but this seems to be teh version she’s singing in the video above. I’m pretty sure the há-de version is taken from Dulce Pontes’ rendition.

***=What’s the word “ter” doing here? According to priberam “ir ter a” is a compound verb meaning the same as “ir dar a” or “ir parar a” – um… OK, I’m none the wiser… but according to the Guia Prático de Verbos Com Preposições, that means “terminar em” or “desembocar”. So basically, to lead to something, to end up at something. Hence “ended up at”

****=I must admit, I got confused about this since the incense reference seemed a bit random, and I was trying to make sense of it by looking at alternative meanings of that word. Figuratively, it can mean praise or subservience, but I think I was overthinking it because it looks like she’s just referring to the smells at the top of the verse. OK, right, that makes sense!