Aug 23, 2012 16:29
11 yrs ago
2 viewers *
Spanish term
una suerte de pliegue
Spanish to English
Social Sciences
Anthropology
I am currently working on a text about the role of craftsmanship and artisan practices in modern society.
Parece como si el presente, la subsistencia de una tradición de siglos, tuviera que convertirse, para resistir, en una suerte de pliegue entre el pasado y el futuro.
Here is my (admittedly poor) attempted translation:
It is as though the present, the subsistence of centuries of tradition, were being forced to become, in order to remain intact, a type of fold between the past and the future.
Again, any help would be very much appreciated
Regards
Jack
Parece como si el presente, la subsistencia de una tradición de siglos, tuviera que convertirse, para resistir, en una suerte de pliegue entre el pasado y el futuro.
Here is my (admittedly poor) attempted translation:
It is as though the present, the subsistence of centuries of tradition, were being forced to become, in order to remain intact, a type of fold between the past and the future.
Again, any help would be very much appreciated
Regards
Jack
Proposed translations
(English)
Proposed translations
+1
12 mins
Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Specializes in field
United Kingdom
Related KudoZ points
:
16
Selected
some kind of folding point
How very philosophical! Are they talking about how artisan crafts, unlike digital ones, have to look to the past, revive or hold onto past techniques etc? I think 'folding point', which evokes 'turning point' works quite well.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks once again, Simon, and indeed to everyone who contributed!
Regards
Jack"
39 mins
David Ronder
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
United Kingdom
Linguistic flair and an eye for detail
Native in: English 
Works in: Spanish to English, English
a sort of joint
i.e. the point at which past and present meet and move, and I hope a suitably craftsmanlike metaphor
3 mins
watershed
Often used as a divide between two periods, eg.
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Note added at 5 mins (2012-08-23 16:35:18 GMT)
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In North America, the word watershed often means not the dividing line, but the river catchment areas on either side of the ridge, the whole land area that drains into a particular river. How the sense shifted isn’t clear. It came into use only around the 1870s, and may have been a misunderstanding.
The difference in sense explains why Americans don’t use the figurative sense of the word as much as the rest of us do. That refers to an important point of division or transition, as in this sentence from the Daily Telegraph in June 1999: “The Balkans conflict is at a watershed between a diplomatic settlement and the prospect of a ground war”. This figurative usage only makes sense if you use watershed in its original meaning of a dividing line.
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Note added at 1 hr (2012-08-23 17:33:54 GMT)
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Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage - Página 948 - Resultado de Google Books
books.google.com.ar/books?isbn=0877791325
Merriam-Webster, Inc - 1994 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 989 páginas
Our earliest evidence for the figurative use of watershed is from the 1 920s: . . .
follows a narrow path, a kind of "watershed" between biography and bibliography ...
What is a watershed moment
wiki.answers.com › ... › Name Origins - Traducir esta página
The figurative meaning comes from the literal meaning of a point, or division in a ... Where does the expression watershed moment come from? ... Sign in using: ..
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Note added at 5 mins (2012-08-23 16:35:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
In North America, the word watershed often means not the dividing line, but the river catchment areas on either side of the ridge, the whole land area that drains into a particular river. How the sense shifted isn’t clear. It came into use only around the 1870s, and may have been a misunderstanding.
The difference in sense explains why Americans don’t use the figurative sense of the word as much as the rest of us do. That refers to an important point of division or transition, as in this sentence from the Daily Telegraph in June 1999: “The Balkans conflict is at a watershed between a diplomatic settlement and the prospect of a ground war”. This figurative usage only makes sense if you use watershed in its original meaning of a dividing line.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2012-08-23 17:33:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage - Página 948 - Resultado de Google Books
books.google.com.ar/books?isbn=0877791325
Merriam-Webster, Inc - 1994 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 989 páginas
Our earliest evidence for the figurative use of watershed is from the 1 920s: . . .
follows a narrow path, a kind of "watershed" between biography and bibliography ...
What is a watershed moment
wiki.answers.com › ... › Name Origins - Traducir esta página
The figurative meaning comes from the literal meaning of a point, or division in a ... Where does the expression watershed moment come from? ... Sign in using: ..
+1
4 hrs
Denise Phelps
Native in English
Works in field
Traducción de trabajos académicos
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, English
(a kind of) bridge between
Another possibility, with the idea of connecting the past with the future.
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Note added at 5 hrs (2012-08-23 21:30:10 GMT)
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Looking again, I'm not sure (without more context) if this means connecting the present with or distinguishing it from other periods: in the case of the latter, "hiatus" might be the answer.
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Note added at 5 hrs (2012-08-23 21:30:10 GMT)
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Looking again, I'm not sure (without more context) if this means connecting the present with or distinguishing it from other periods: in the case of the latter, "hiatus" might be the answer.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Sian Cooper
: I don't think a direct translation of fold is right, this is the English phrase for joining two things
1 day 23 hrs
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Thanks Sian
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7 hrs
Jillian Kostora da Silva
United States
United States
Native in English
United States
JK Spanish & Portuguese Translation Svcs
Native in: English (Variant: US)
Works in: Spanish to English, Portuguese to English, English to Spanish, and 3 more.
a sort of sedimentary fold
A pliegue or fold, as it's called, is when sediment is "pushed" by pressure and temperatures of the Earth and literally folds up, trapping the mass in a sort of upwards structure. So in this case, it seems very poetic - comparing the present as struggling to freeze itself (timewise) as soft sedimentary rock that is trapped within this fold, by the mass of the past that has surrounded it and by the future who also threatens to overtake it by it's centuries of doing just that...moving along. A "bubble" of the here and the now, so-to-speak.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
veronicaes
18 hrs
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| disagree |
Sian Cooper
: Certainly this sheds light on what the writer is expressing, but I do not think you can translate this as 'a sort of sedimentary fold' in this context. It is the same as 'pli' in French - a pleat or fold, in all its many senses.
3 days 8 hrs
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8 hrs
a hinge/ a pivot
A couple of possibilities
Discussion
My take on it, then, with a fair amount of freedom, is
'It looks like, in order to survive, these centuries-old traditions had to become (to act as) a link-point, spanning the gap between the past and the future."
What is meant by "pliegue"?
Is it a folding point or a bond or a division line? No clue, really.
Might be philosophical in nature, and poetical also.