Foi assim / Era assim

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Portuguese term or phrase:	Foi assim / Era assim
English translation:	It was so / It used to be so
Entered by:	Oliver Simões

14:41 Nov 20, 2023

This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other

Portuguese to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Other / Song lyrics

Portuguese term or phrase: Foi assim / Era assim

My question is not related to the verb forms but rather to the word choice. "It was so" or "it was like that"?

This is part of a song titled "Nos Bailes da Vida" by Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brandt. Currently, I have these phrases translated as "It was like that" and "It used to be like that". To understand the following comment, you'll need to look at the translation at: https://masterportuguesetranslator.com/samples/literary-tran... (There you will find the full lyrics, the translation draft, and a music video.)

Comment: Not sure that the line lengths are appropriate, considering that they are shorter in PT. On the other hand, one has to consider whether the word choice will keep the line lengths proportional to one another in the translation. As is, the last line of stanza 1 is the shortest (in both translation and original), but in stanza 2 it's the shortest in the original only. To offset this, I thought of adding "[radiant]" before "sun" on line 2.

Anyway, this is how the first two stanzas go:

"Foi nos bailes da vida ou num bar
Em troca de pão
Que muita gente boa pôs o pé na profissão
De tocar um instrumento e de cantar
Não importando se quem pagou quis ouvir
Foi assim

Cantar era buscar o caminho
Que vai dar no sol
Tenho comigo as lembranças do que eu era
Para cantar nada era longe, tudo tão bom
Até a estrada de terra na boléia de caminhão
Era assim"

Stanza 3 (not quoted) reads, "Se foi assim, assim será", which was translated as "If it was so, it will be so".

Is it okay to use both forms ("so" and "like that") in the translation? (I appreciate any constructive feedback that might help me sort this out.)

Thanks in advance.

L2: EN-US
Register: poetic

Oliver Simões KudoZ activity Questions: 1105 (2 open) (3 without valid answers) (227 closed without grading) Answers: 3435 United States
Local time: 06:21

Summary of answers provided

That's what they did / That's how it was

jack_speak

it was once that way / it went on that way

Adrian MM.

Discussion entries: 5

Oliver Simões

United States

ASKER

@Jack et al.

02:34 Nov 22, 2023

Thank you all for the suggestions and comments. I decided to take a literal approach and preserve the distinction between the preterite and the imperfect. I have found a couple of examples that corroborate my choice:

"I'm translating a book, which involves logic and quoted the sentence from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass: "If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/210451/if-it-was...

THE ADICTS - "And it was So!" (title of a song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMnUin48PKs

"No. It used to be so but not anymore." https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/111048-disintegration-and-...

"I know it USED to be so, but I've missed a lot of quieter rules changes over the years." https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgrules/comments/w834px/if_somethi... (emphasis added to all quotes)

By taking a literal approach, I was able to keep the translation as concise as possible and keep the verb tense distinction:

Foi assim: It was so.
Era assim: It used to be so.

jack_speak

20:18 Nov 21, 2023

OK I've been thinking about it a lot. The tricky part is trying to transmit the meaning behind the preterite in the first stanza and the imperfect in the second stanza.

The first stanza talks about people's action – – how they got into singing and playing instruments out of love of music. It's what they did.
The second stanza talks about what things were like. (Cantar era, eu era.) It's how things were.

I think it's important to try not to be too literal in the translation.

Oliver Simões

United States

ASKER

20:06 Nov 20, 2023

Thank you, Phil, for your helpful feedback. Hi, Jack. No, I don't have a deadline to meet. This is part of my translation sample portfolio.

jack_speak

18:57 Nov 20, 2023

Oliver, i'm a little busy right now, but I will give you my thoughts in a few hours after I have time to listen to the song. Do you have a deadline?

philgoddard

United States

17:41 Nov 20, 2023

The question, which is right at the end, is 'Is it okay to use both forms ("so" and "like that")'.

I would say no, because then you lose the whole point of repeating 'assim'. And 'so' is more graceful than 'like that'.

Answers

1 day 5 hrs confidence:

That's what they did / That's how it was

Explanation:
Se foi assim, assim será

And as it was, so it will be

jack_speak
Local time: 09:21
Meets criteria
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 63

1 day 8 hrs confidence:

foi assim / era assim it was once that way / it went on that way

Explanation:
echoes of: il en fut ainsi in FRE (one literary translation in my cursory, background reading 40 years ago: 'thus it was that...' ) and (es) así que in Lat. Am. Spanish.

I've picked up on Jack's preterite vs. imperfect point, but am unsure about the 'so' and 'like that' point.

Example sentence(s):

ProZ: es así que hoy, nuestra empresa... English translation: this is how / in this way / so it is that / and so today, our company...

Reference: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/portuguese-to-english/idioms-maxim...
Reference: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/portuguese-to-french/general-conve...

Adrian MM.
Austria
Meets criteria
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 3

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