Asturian-American Migration Forum

As you may have noticed, we have begun translating some of the posts in the forum so that they appear in both English and Spanish (castellano), and we are also trying translating some of the posts that were originally in Asturian (asturianu) into English, in an effort to make the information accessible to all of our members. (We assume that most speakers of asturianu also read and speak castellano.) Some of the translations have been done directly by us, and some are simply tweaked versions of machine translations.

I have been impressed with the improved quality of machine translations over the last six or seven years, but they still leave much to be desired. In essence though, a similar problem exists with any translation. The choice of an exact word or the selection of a particular turn of phrase that would translate the "foreign" language of the original into what would pass for the writing or speech of a native speaker of "our own" language is often difficult. I often find myself torn between fidelity to the original and trying to get across meaning. The problems in translating in the other direction are even greater (at least for me).

There is an Italian proverb that says "traduttore, traditore." It means "translator, traitor" or "traductor, traidor": "to translate is to betray." A bit of an overstatement, I think, and a much better pun in Italian than in English or Spanish.

I'm curious about how our other members feel about translation issues.

I appreciate your efforts in translating these messages from English to Castellano to bable. I treat it like a Rosetta Stone (hope that is spelled correctly). I am mostly interested in the translation to 'bable'.

PS -- If you need any help with these translations I will gladly help. I am fluent in English, Castillian and Galician (do not forget that the extreme part of Western Asturias speaks mostly a combination of gallego and bable). Also, I know of a few people that can probably help somewhat in the translation to bable.

I have translated some of the messages in our forums from castellano into English, and a few of the messages from bable (asturianu) into English, but I am much less confident in my ability to translate in the other directions (especially into asturianu, which I read much better than I write). Any translations you would care to do would be very much appreciated by us and by our members. Please send the translations on to any of the three of us (Suronda, Art or Bob) and well will post them.

Thanks very much,
Muchas gracias.
Munches gracies.

Bob Martinez

I need help with a translation...I need to translate something in english to asturian and galician (Gallego) and even Latin if it's possible.
I'd really appreciate it. I'd have to talk to my cousins in Spain to help me, but the've been so busy lately. So if anyone knows the language and can help me. Thank you.
I'd like to translate this: "Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream."

Thanks...
~Danae

This is not an easy translation. Give me a couple of days to study it.


Non e unha translacion sin difilcutade. (galician)


En un par de dias, creo que te la puedo enviar. (castillian)

Aqui esta.

“Es todo lo que vemos o parece pero un sueño dentro de un sueño”
castellano
“É todo o que vemos ou parece pero un soño dentro dun soño”
galego

I have two questions about the original English:
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?"

First, am I right to assume that a question mark goes at the end of this sentence?

Second, I'm assume that "seems" here has a poetic sense, since it's not a standard English usage, or at least, it's not something I'd be likely to say. But what is the subject of "seems": "we" or "everything in general"? Wouldn't the choice we make here change the translation? My hesitant guess is that "we" is the subject.

Even without those questions, my translation of the sentence would be a little different. Of course, I'm no expert in Castilian and I know nothing of galego. Still, it strikes me that the translation of "but" in this example should reflect a meaning of "only" or "nothing more than".

So with those thoughts in mind, I'd offer this:

“¿Es todo lo que vemos o parecemos nada más que un sueño dentro de un sueño?” --castellano

or

“¿Es todo lo que vemos o parecemos sólo un sueño dentro de un sueño?” --castellano

“¿É todo o que vemos ou parecemos nada máis que un soño dentro dun soño?” --galego

or

“¿É todo o que vemos ou parecemos só un soño dentro dun soño?” --galego

Perhaps someone else can critique my translation. I'm not at all sure it retains its poetic sense.

Hi!

I'm not very fluent in English (my apologies, BTW); but, I read the sentence as a choice:
- "Is all that we see
or
- seem but a dream within a dream?"

The first part is a question about real existence of things, and the alternative is that things are just images, as in dreams.

So, my translation would be:

"¿Existe todo lo que vemos, o no parece sino un sueño dentro de un sueño?" (Cast)

"¿Esiste tolo que vemos, o namai paez un suañu dientro un suañu?" (Ast)

The galician translation is beyond my skills