Monday, July 6, 2009

la tierra es de quien la trabaja

I am such a geek that sometimes while watching subtitled movies I write down translations I either like or don't. I recently sat through all 4 hours of the movie Che and wrote down a bunch.

por las nubes - through the roof (in reference to mortalidad infantil)
desmontar - clear the land
concéntrate - stay focused
romper monte - bushwhack (not what they used in the movie, but I would)
que te vaya bien - have a good trip?! (what they used in the movie, bit bizarre)
pendejo - moron (well, I've heard many versions, but in some instances this would be just right)
mocoso - snot faced kid
contrareplica - rebuttal
dale candela - torch it
temerario - reckless
proclamar - cry (as in, patria o muerte)
cual es la postura de la organizacion - where does the org stand
su puño y letra - his hand and word ?! (what they used, sounds awful - his words in his handwriting I'd say)
la tierra es de quien la trabaja - the owner of the land is the one who works it (what they said, and wow does it sound awful. how about the land belongs to those who work it!)

4 comments:

Atenea said...

Algunas notas al margen... mocoso se usa coloquialmente para referirse a un niño, tenga mocos o no ;) puño y letra puede ser in his/her own words en lenguaje figurado y sí, la tierra es de quien LA trabaja... y por aquí decimos que el orgasmo también es de quien lo trabaja (!)

Saludos...

traci said...

interesting post, sara. how would you have translated the "have a good trip" reference? i can see it as a perfectly good translation, depending on the context...

have you ever seen the movie "the initerpreter?" it's one of my favorites, but i was hugely disappointed in the subtitles of that one. (the irony is hard to ignore!) elias and i often have to pause movies and discuss how the subtitles have totally changed the original meaning...


thanks for this!

Sara Koopman said...

well it just seems like folks are rarely actually leaving on a trip when they get 'que te vaya bien' - they're headed out the door, yes, but weird to say have a good trip if you're just going home down the block! it's pretty context dependent, but I think I would render it more like 'good luck' or maybe have a great day, or in Canada maybe just cheers! : )

Anonymous said...

La tierra es de quien la trabaja se refiere al motto de Emiliano Zapata. Una traduccion mas apropiada es "land belongs to those who work/toil it".