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sementera /sementeira – the sowing – accion de sembrar

Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:48 am
by is
sementera: pronounced seh-mehn-THE-rah (Central Asturian). sementeira: pronounced seh-mehn-TAY-rah (West Asturian counties of Ayande, Vil.layon and Navia to Galicia).

The act of planting or scattering seed over land to grow crops. Also, the place were seeds are strewn or the time of year when villagers band together to lay down seeds for buckwheat, spring onions, carrots, or to plant potatoes. It is related to the Asturian verb semar, to plant, and from the word for seed: semiente or simiente.

By extension, a sementera or sementeira can imply a place where business start-ups have settled, as in ‘sementera d’empreses’ (business incubator).

Synonyms at seeding, strewing, scattering, propagating, disseminating, planting, implanting, cultivating.

Usage examples:

Sonya dixo que taba’l tiempu pa la sementeira. [Sonya said the weather was good for sowing.]
Pa la sementera nun taria mal entamar coles fabes. [It wouldn’t be a bad idea to start sowing by planting Asurian fava beans.]
Pa la sementeira esti anu n’Estela baxou Nolo d’Eirias. [For this year’s sowing in Estela, Nolo came down from Eirias.]

Folk wisdom:

Non semaste bona sementera en to campu. [You didn’t sow good seeds in your field.]
El que bien sema, bien cuei. [He who sows well, reaps even better.]

Here is an image of The Sower (1850) by Jean-François Millet:

Image

And listen to this woman from L.landelfornu in County Vil.layon speaking to Xose Anton Ambas, in his TPA show ‘Camin de Cantares’, about having to haul earth away from the fields during the sementeira.


Minute 1:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXsUVBLj ... re=related

Ambas: Ya ia mas esclavo L.landelfornu ou Eirias?
Maruja: Oi, L.landelfornu muitu mas…
Ambas: Muitu mas L.landelfornu.
Maruja: Teniamos que sacar la tierra cuando venia la sementeira del maiz de las fabas ya todo eso, sacabamos la tierra a cestadas de la fondada pal pico…