momo porto

I just got a message from a friend in Madrid, but I don't understand part of it.
can you help me translate it? thanks!

"A ver si le pillas la gracia a esto. Es muy típico spanish. Y dijo un gran hombre, "from the lost to the river!"

Un beso maja,

Alejandro"



any help would be greatly appreciated!!

gernt

I was going to say, just go to http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ and let it translate it. I did that and got:

To see if you pillage the grace to him to this. Spanish is very typical. And a great man said, " from the lost to to river! " A smart kiss, Alejandro"

Oops.

OK “A ver” also means “Let’s see”. Pillar can mean catch. Gracia can mean joke.

So… Let’s see if you can get the joke in this. It’s very typical Spanish. A great man (once) said: “from the lost to the river”. A nice kiss, Alejandro.

I think the saying is really "From lost to the river". There was a movie by that name. But who said it and what did it mean? Maybe someone smarter than me can answer. In Spanish it's: De perdidos al río. I think maybe we would say: out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Later: OK. I found a link http://es.answers.yahoo.com/question...9225015AANuuXc .

momo porto

Thank you so much for your help!

what does a "smart Kiss" mean?! what is that comparable to in English? who would normally use it?

THANKS AGAIN! I can't tell you how much I appreciate your assistance.

gernt

Beats me. But, man, it seems to be a VERY common expression. Anybody, can we translate it as "hugs" (un abrazo)? Or is it more personal. Eso es la pregunta, ¿es muy personal, o muy común?

PS. I think maja in this case means "flirty". That still doesn't make a lot of sense.

lauracipolla

momo porto/ gernt,

It's not a "smart kiss", it's "a kiss for you, girl". There's a comma missing after the kiss. As to "maja", please check the DRAE. There are people from Spain in the forum that can enlarge or improve this, but I know "maja" is a word very frequent form of addressing girls in Spain: it's "lady" or "girl", but appreciative, like "beautiful girl", like "guapa" --"linda" in Argentina. (And have you never seen the painting of the Maja -dressed and naked- by Goya?) http://www.fuenterrebollo.com/faqs-n...a-goya-197.jpg (just the dressed one )

Kisses? We always send a kiss/kisses to one another in Argentina -not just lovers but also friends, family. I don't know if it's so common in Spain, but I know it's NOT in English-speaking countries...

(I couldn't get the lost and the river part... or see the fun in it...)

I'd like to read some input from Spain, come on!!!
Best regards to all (or Kisses to all!)
Laura

exxcéntrica

SPAIN READY TO GO!!!!

jeje, well here we go.

The lost to the river part is a very silly joke we use on people who "think" they speak English, or simply to fool around with the language like for example:

¡¡¡between, between!!!! = Entre, entre!! (a una habitación)

Lost to the river: perdido al rio

The saying in Spanish: de perdidos al río means, let's do it, whatever the risk, no matter what, ok, whatever you say...

Better explanations and interesting thread here:

http://es.answers.yahoo.com/question...9225015AANuuXc

Your sentence:

"A ver si le pillas la gracia a esto. Es muy típico spanish. Y dijo un gran hombre, "from the lost to the river!"

Un beso maja,

Alejandro"

Let's see if you get this joke. It's very typical Spanish. And a great man said: de perdidos al rio...

Hugs and kisses, sweety.
alejandro.

__________________

“Aunque la conducta del marido sea censurable, aunque este se dé a otros amores, la mujer virtuosa debe reverenciarlo como a un dios. Durante la infancia, una mujer debe depender de su padre, al casarse de su marido, si este muere, de sus hijos y si no los tuviera, de su soberano. Una mujer nunca debe gobernarse a sí misma."

Leyes de Manu (Libro Sagrado de la India

gernt

Goodnightmoon

I didn't know there was a film by that name, but there was a book called "From lost to the river" basically a long list of Spanish idioms literally translated into English with a fun explanation. The kind of thing you find hilarious if you speak both languages and will puzzle those who only speak one and can't get what you're laughing at.

There was a couple of sequels: Speaking in silver - Hablando en plata and Shit little parrot - Cágate lorito.

On this page you can find some more translations of idioms (scroll down a bit to find the list): http://usuarios.lycos.es/encofratasp..._pitinglis.htm

From lost to the river has become sinonymous with speaking terrible English translating directly from Spanish. This picture is a good example:
http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/...the-river.html

Original and "translation" here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wicho/301769874/. It's obvious they used an online translator. To think some people do believe those things really work!

__________________
Visto el panorama... va a ser que no.

exxcéntrica

¡¡Jesús!! Vamos, ¡¡esto es la monda!!

Divertidísimo, Goodnightmoon

__________________

“Aunque la conducta del marido sea censurable, aunque este se dé a otros amores, la mujer virtuosa debe reverenciarlo como a un dios. Durante la infancia, una mujer debe depender de su padre, al casarse de su marido, si este muere, de sus hijos y si no los tuviera, de su soberano. Una mujer nunca debe gobernarse a sí misma."

Leyes de Manu (Libro Sagrado de la India

Goodnightmoon

Me alegro de que te haya gustado. Ésta tampoco tiene desperdicio. No creo que nadie se atreva a pedir el yogur de piña, eso sí:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nereux/...adtranslations

El grupo Bad translations - Mauvaises traductions de Flickr (enlace en la parte derecha de la página, sobre las fotos en miniatura) tiene recopiladas cientos de perlas de este tipo.

__________________
Visto el panorama... va a ser que no.