Today at the Farmers' Market an elderly anglo woman asked the vendor, a middle-aged mexican, "Do these keep?"
He didn't understand. "No entiendes?" she asked ("You don't understand?"). But that seemed to be the extent of the Spanish she could martial to her dilemma.
Frankly, I didn't understand. I thought she meant the strawberries, but she meant the loquats. My little mind went searching around in its drawers for a Spanish version of the word "keep" ... "Mentener?" I suggested. The vendor corrected me, "Mantener?"
"Is that how you say it?" the lady asked me. But what did she want to say exactly?
"You want to know how long the loquats will keep in your fridge?" I asked.
"Mine only last a day," she said.
"How long do you want them to last?"
She blinked. "I guess I hadn't thought this out."
"Mas que un dia," I said. "More than one day. Right?"
"Mas que un dia," she repeated. "Would they last three days? En el refrigerador?"
"Tres dias en el refrigerador," the vendor agreed.
The thing about useful translation. Merely translating a word is not useful. What is the thought you are trying to convey? The woman wanting loquats wanted to know how long they'd be good for. But it seemed to me she already knew they wouldn't last long. How long was it acceptable for them to last? That seemed to me the easiest way to ask with my own limited Spanish. God knows I stumble over expressing myself in any language (though I do OK in this one) but I am pretty good at thinking my way around one word when that word turns out to be a locked gate rather than an open door.
No comments:
Post a Comment