Mar 4, 2010 03:01
14 yrs ago
Spanish term

soñaban atardeceres

Spanish to English Art/Literary Tourism & Travel
From a tourism text singing the praises of a coastal village in Andalusia and speaking of a Roman-era salted fish works there:

Júpiter, Juno y Minerva, y la diosa Isis, hace siglos, soñaban atardeceres en las playas de Bolonia, mientras ascendía por el aire el agrio olor de los salazones

Does this mean that these entities were dreaming of the twilight beaches of Bologna, or were dreaming on them in the dusk, or what? I am perplexed.

Discussion

Carolina Brito Mar 5, 2010:
Carol, I did not take it as offensive....just funny...different sense of humor.....I meant that it wouldn't be offensive to the gods.....taking their feelings into consideration....please do not take this comment on a serious note....
Carol Gullidge Mar 5, 2010:
@ britos I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying to Deborah! There's no mention or thought of being offensive
Carolina Brito Mar 5, 2010:
maybe not spirits, but gods of nature....Minerva’s symbol was an owl, Jupiter, god of thunder and lightning, and many brides get married in June to “pay her tribute”; Juno was one heck of a dame!!!!!! So I guess this is truly, truly not offensive
Carol Gullidge Mar 5, 2010:
@ Deborah I'm sure Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, etc, wouldn't take kindly to being compared to "nature spirits"!!
Isamar Mar 4, 2010:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1107791.jpg These may well be the containers used for making "garum", the fish condiment that was so highly prized by the Romans. They are places like this all along the Spanish coast and other parts of the Mediterranean.
bcsantos Mar 4, 2010:
It's a small fishing village by a lovely beach with Roman ruins of tuna salting factory nearby. Near Tarifa.
Evans (X) Mar 4, 2010:
especially since Bologna is nowhere near a beach, last time I looked!
Daniel Burns (X) (asker) Mar 4, 2010:
Relevant info The "Playa de Bolonia" is a beach in this Spanish village, rather than in Italy.

Proposed translations

+3
6 hrs
Selected

dreamily whiled away the sunset/dusk

being horribly prosaic, there was probably no need to dream of sunsets or even dream them up, as these were probably in plentiful supply. And the "agrio olor" wafting up suggests that the deities were actually there to experience it - and it hasn't been made to sound too appetising either: not the sort of thing any gods might want to dream of or conjure up. So it sounds as though they were spending dreamy dusks on the beach - despite the 'orrible stench of the fish... :) (which, incidentally, I'm not suggesting you should over-emphasise!)

By the way, I feel the wording of the text rather implies that Isis was the only goddess amongst those listed, but in fact Juno and Minerva were also goddesses
Peer comment(s):

agree Mónica Algazi : Poético, Carol.
1 hr
many thanks Mónica!
agree Jenny Westwell : Yes, I agree with your reasoning! :)
3 hrs
many thanks la acequiera! I can't help thinking that if they were going to dream of/up a sunset, they would omit any sort of "agrio olor".. :)
agree Lucy Williams
1 day 46 mins
Many thanks Lucy!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Whatever the writer meant, this sounds the best choice to me for a tourism text. "
+6
6 mins

dreamed up sunsets

that's one way of saying it. I think it is implying a creative ability to produce the sunsets. Perhaps I am mistaken. In that case it would be dreamed of sunsets
Peer comment(s):

agree Rosa Paredes
34 mins
thanks
agree franglish
5 hrs
thanks
agree Evans (X) : I think this is more likely the idea; if they were dreaming of sunsets I would have expected "soñaban con" to have been used.
5 hrs
thank
agree Eileen Banks
8 hrs
thanks
agree Bubo Coroman (X) : yes, there was and is a belief in nature spirits who produce phenomena like sunsets
9 hrs
thankss
agree bcsantos : Yes.
9 hrs
thanks
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1 hr

dreamt of sunsets

another option
Peer comment(s):

disagree Lourdes Sanchez : I feel your version too stiff for the topic
7 mins
ok, your choice, but I don't feel it stiff at all
agree Gloria Rivera : I like your option since it conveys the same formality of the original text. :)
38 mins
thank you very much....on the same wavelength
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25 mins

woolgathered sundowns

for a poetic touch

wool·gath·er (wlgr)
intr.v.
To engage in fanciful daydreaming.

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Note added at 1 hr (2010-03-04 04:13:50 GMT)
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I think it can go either way
Peer comment(s):

neutral Carol Gullidge : even allowing for poetic licence, this sounds odd in EN - perhaps because "woolgathering" is an intransitive verb, and therefore cannot take an object. But in any case, I fear that few EN speakers would get the meaning
8 hrs
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7 hrs

dreaming of the perfect sunset

As these are the dreams of gods and goddesses, surely their sunsets should be nothing short of perfect?
Peer comment(s):

neutral Carol Gullidge : but what about the "agrio olor" - doesn't sound very perfect to me :)
2 hrs
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Reference comments

8 hrs
Reference:

About Playa de Bologna

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