And they ate partridges?

One of the featured dishes at our lovely Christmas event this year at Xoriguer with the Islander heavyweights has been the inspiration for the content of this piece; the lovely partridge salad. In English, we have the famous ‘…and a partridge in a pear tree’ from the Twelve Days of Christmas, but in Spanish they have their own little nod to partridges.

 

What in English we know as ‘…and they lived happily ever after’, the classic fairytale final line, can be translated into Spanish as ‘…and they ate partridges’ or to give it its full form ‘Vivieron felices y comieron perdices’ or ‘They lived happily and ate partridges’. I can only expect, it is for rhyming effect rather than anything else, but I just love these little language curiosities and would like to share some of my favourites with you.

As a Brit who has always been an avid language fan and learner, linguistic oddities have always piqued my interest, and they also give us an insight into the culture of the language too. After all, partridge hunting with dogs has been a popular pastime in Spain for centuries so there may be some logic, but not always.

The Spanish language or Castellano is full of nonsensical expressions when translated directly into English, but beware, translating directly can often result in embarrassment. Just like when at seventeen years old I asked my Spanish teacher if I could open the window because I was horny. ‘Estoy caliente’ meaning ‘I’m horny’ instead of ‘Tengo calor’. If only opening a window were the Spanish equivalent of a cold shower.

Test your skills with the following idioms. Can you guess its English equivalent from its direct translation? Answers at the foot of the page;

1. Haber gato encerrado = lit. To have a cat locked up
2. Mucho ruido y pocas nueces = lit. A lot of noise and few walnuts
3. De uvas a peras = lit. From grapes to pears

This brings me to the concept of lost in translation. As in any language, there are ‘untranslatables’, things which exist in one language because of a specific culture, or simply because the language has more need for that particular expression. As ‘almost’ bilingual, I frequently find myself using the Spanish word for something which doesn’t exist in English, little nuances that seem rather tricky to translate. Some of my favourites include;

Friolero (adj)

Sobremesa (n)

Anteayer/pasado mañana (adv)

The first one, ‘friolero’, is something that crops up quite often if you spend any time with me. I am notoriously ‘sensitive to the cold’. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue, though, does it? A bit of a long-winded way of saying something that really should have an English equivalent.

So why does ‘friolero’ exist in Spanish and not in standard English? In English, are we just supposed to accept the cold? After all it is what we were brought up with in the UK, that cold cold arctic wind slapping you across the face mid-June. So, no English translation, or so I thought. Cue a trip to Amsterdam in January, cue a Manc friend of mine, cue ‘nesh’. ‘…I’m sorry, what? I’m what, Jimmy?’ ‘Stop sitting next to the radiator because it’s making you nesh.’

 

It would turn out that in fact there does exist a translation of ‘friolero’ in regional English. Thanks to the ever-mocking Lancastrians, we have our first translation: nesh. Out of curiosity, I put ‘nesh’ through the renowned bilingual online dictionary WordReference. I was given ‘débil’, meaning ‘weak’ so as the Mancs would say, ‘‘Nuff said’.

Our next word is a somewhat cultural one: ‘sobremesa’. The sobremesa often translated as ‘table talk’ or ‘after dinner conversation’ is one deeply rooted in Spanish culture. As English speakers, we don’t tend to follow this tradition of after a lovely lunch, you stay seated at the table enjoying each other’s company, a nice hierbas or carajillo de Bailey’s, or GinTonic might be nestled between your palms, and you simply chat while you allow your food to digest. Our fast-paced eating routine of a sandwich and a packet of crisps just isn’t conducive to the oh-so enjoyable sobremesa.

Our final word is ‘anteayer’ or ‘the day before yesterday’, but could easily include ‘pasado mañana’ or ‘the day after tomorrow’. Technically, we have ways of expressing these terms in English, but not in a one word expression or short phrase – again, or so I thought.

After some digging, we do in fact have ways to express these convoluted mouthfuls in English, the now sadly defunct; ‘ereyesterday’ and ‘overmorrow’.  My quest for this next year, I want to hear more people using ‘ereyesterday’ and ‘overmorrow’, they roll off the tongue easier than ‘the day before yesterday’ and ‘the day after tomorrow’. I’m bringing them back.

My final titbit refers to two loves of my life; Sunderland AFC (FTM) and my pet, Fury, AKA The Baby Furious. Both passions being inextricably linked by black cats.

‘The Black Cats’, only Sunderland AFC’s moniker since 1997, but one long-established in its history. The stories of the name’s origin all point to black cats being lucky. When I was looking to adopt a cat, my only stipulation was that it be a black one. I was told that here in Spain, I would have no problem finding one as they are considered unlucky. Most abandoned cats you’ll find in Son Reus will be black, and if you take note of any strays, I’m sure you’ll come across more than your fair share of black ones. Now you know why. But, as many a seafarer knows, black cats have inhabited ships for centuries as mousers, and some sailor’s wives even kept black cats at home as talismans to better protect their husbands at sea. I like to think of them as bringers of good luck.

¡Vientos favorables! Although it doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it.

Answers to the idioms;

1.    Something fishy is going on
2.   All talk and no trousers
3.   Once in a blue moon/Not very often

By Alex Stocker

alexstocker45@gmail.com