Thursday, December 30, 2010

primero Dios

primero Dios: if it is God's will



I have often struggled to interpret this saying, which is sometimes sprinkled liberally throughout sentences. I liked this version in today's Democracy Now! headlines. If you're not listening to these daily online - why not? Best independent media out there, in both English and Spanish. Great way to practice.

So the relevant headline today was about Dilma Rousseff being sworn in as Brazil’s first female president on Saturday. Outgoing president Lula said:

"It is deeply symbolic that the presidential sash is being handed over from the first working-class president to the first female president. This will be a landmark in the beautiful path our people have been building to turn Brazil, if it’s God’s will, into one of the world’s most equal countries."

May this new year bring more equality to us all! Many thanks to those of you who read this blog and care about making our movements more multilingual, and especially to those who comment. May we achieve better working conditions as interpreters and translators in the new year!

2 comments:

Mago said...

I have another suggestion; "God willing." What do you think? Two ways that this version is a closer match for the original are that it’s short and is more of a formulaic set phrase.

Sara Koopman said...

yes! so much better! thank you! sorry for the huge delay in seeing this - I've been swamped with spam comments lately and had to wade through them to find the real ones. so glad I did!