Saturday, March 05, 2005

Traducción exacta

Molinos mallorquínos


A veces Robert Graves, que vivía en Mallorca, se divertía traduciendo del español de una manera literal y jocosa:

Trín Trín Trín!
Speak to me!
Is that the house of Gravés? Can one talk with Don Roberto?
At the apparatus! On behalf of whom?
I am Don Blas Mas y Mas.
A thousand pardons, Don Blas. In consequence of the bad telephone connexion I did not fix in my mind that it was you.
How do you find yourself, Don Roberto?
Very rickety well, thanks be to God!
I celebrate it. And your graceful spouse?
Regrettably she is a trifle catarrhed.
I much lament it. And the four beautiful children?
For the present, thanks be to the saints, well enough. I feel overwhelmed by your amicable inquiries. But you, Don Blas? How goes it with you?
A stupidity has occurred to me. I am speaking from my uncle's private clinic, having broken my arm in various places.
Ai, Ai, Ai! I feel it painfully... What a most disgraceful event! I wager that it somehow had relations with motor-bicycles.
Mathematically correct, Don Roberto!

Desde su libro Majorca Observed (que cuenta con los dibujos estupendos de Paul Hogarth).

10 comments:

Metallyptica said...

Mui bonitos, os mollinos!

Yotro said...

Obrigado!

Anonymous said...

Está muy gracioso ese texto. Otras traducciones literales que cirulan por Internet: Your pan has gone (se te ha ido la olla) For if the flies (por si las moscas)Shit little parrot(Cágate lorito)
You roll yourself like a window (te enrollas como una persiana)
From lost to the river (De perdidos al río)Switch off and let's go (Apaga y vámonos)It is not turkey mucus (No es moco de pavo)Among whistles and flutes(Entre pitos y flautas) Go away to frie asparagous (Vete a freir espárragos)etc, etc.

George Manka said...

For some reason this posting reminds me of that great album (released in the late eighties - as you were leaving your youth) by les Rita Mitsouko called The No Comprendo.

Bern, there is a wonderful song called 'Les Histoires d'Amour' that has a chorus which goes: 'Les histoires d'amour finissent mal, en generale' - Love stories have bad endings usually. I like that non-dogmatic, non-committal statement so rare in the frenetic tendentiousness of modern pop lyrics. I'm thinking of the intolerable Bono, or that other tosser with the ban ... sorry, i seem to be taking up a lot of your time here. Sorry, mate.

Yotro said...
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Yotro said...
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Yotro said...
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Yotro said...
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Yotro said...

Gracias Alex por esas frases hechas muy divertidas. No entiendo Cágate lorito pero no pasa nada.

George, I like the odd understated line, too. Such as the chorus, Is that all there is? ... sung by Peggy Lee.

George Manka said...

....Let's break out the booze! ...yes, I like that song and the final anti-suicide twist at the end. Here in Holland, if they fail to reconstruct your hip, they put you to sleep.