This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
English translation: it had a lot of "professions"
19:48 Jul 7, 2019
Spanish to English translations [Non-PRO] Anthropology / Historia del burro en Esp
Spanish term or phrase:Tuvo muchas profesiones
El burro o asno fue domesticado por el hombre hace más de 6000 años. A mediados del siglo XX había censados en España 675000 asnos; hoy solo quedan unos 30000. Hasta que se impusieron las máquinas (con la industria) tuvo muchas "profesiones": fue campesino, obrero, taxista, bombero, minero, pastor, nevero y aguador.
¡Mil gracias!
Nota: se humaniza un poco al burro al atribuirle profesiones y me gustaría reflejarlo así en la traducción.
Thank you all very much. There are more good answers apart from this one, but finally I have chosen this because of the quotation marks. Yes, perhaps this question should not be considered as a pro one, but I didn´t think this issue was so important, since for us translators every linguistic question dealed with here is in the end treated as a professional one, so I didn't pay so much attention to classifying it as a non-pro question - sorry for that! :-)-. And regarding the word "professions", in Spain taxi-drivers, farm worker, etc. are considered professionals, an academic degree is not needed to have a "profesión". Thanks! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
"Agricultural worker" "Labourer" "Taxi-driver" etc can never be described as "professions" in English. If you do, it will look stupid. And if you put the word in inverted commas it will come across as taking the p*ss out of such workers, ridiculing their jobs. In Sp. countries' forms, marriage certificates... they put "Profesión:" And the answers can be anything: Camionero, camarero, empleado (Mexico), sus labores. The equivalent in English is always "Occupation", never "Profession". The writer here hasn't put "profesiones" in inverted commas in order to ridicule peasants, labourers and and taxi-drivers.
@ Carol-Thank you for helping me to see the light.
21:30 Jul 8, 2019
You know, after all my digressions, I think you are right. Somehow, the simplicity of things are so astonishingly simple that are overwhelmingly difficult! But, it reminds me the "Centipede Dilemma", in more ways than one. ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Centipede's_Dilemma At any rate, next thing to talk about is --talking about donkeys-- the Buridan's ass paradox... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buridan's_ass#Buridan's_p... Any teenager nowadays should be able to discuss about it... ;-)
well I think we will have to agree to differ! Personally, I can't help thinking that we should all have to exercise our little grey cells at least a modicum before deciding that something is "difficult". I still see no difficult aspect in this question despite the fact that there is more than one possible answer - which is always the case when translating anything at all that is not purely technical and hence pretty much cut and dried. The fact that we have to think just a teeny bit - and perhaps weigh up several alternative options - does not make a question Pro, imo! I still persist in believing that there is nothing particularly challenging about this question - it's just one of those decisons that translators deal with every day without batting an eyelid!
is exactly what I mean. I answered the question "without batting an eyelid." However, I missed adding the quotation marks and wrote a typo, "huanize" instead of "humanize." Which is very unprofessional on my part. At any rate -- Oh, I see now your answer, Carol. No, I don't think there is a "hidden" or "profound" meaning, but the fact that one has to do a double or a triple take on the matter, is enough for me to say that not any "bilingual" person would resolve this professionally and with ease.
If this were the case, then there would be no such thing as a Pro or Non-Pro question. But if I am missing something obvious and John believes there is more to this question than meets the eye, then perhaps he should have explained this in his Answer. The fact is that that none of the (perfectly valid) Answers provided so far hints at even the most subtle hidden meaning. Slight nuances perhaps - and we can judge which are our favourites - but there is nothing to stop us from agreeing with different aspects of each of the answers offered so far.
Simply because I'm struggling to choose among the suggestions so far (I'd probably prefer "jobs"). And after 3 decades working as a "language professional", I like to think I can handle most "non-pro" type queries without batting an eyelid. That's my criterion anyway, although others may differ. I agree that the previous query from the same passage can be classed non-pro, but not this one.
The fact that there is more than one valid way to express this doesn’t make it a pro question. Perhaps you had better elucidate on the “pro substance”?
although apparently and seemingly "simple" and "Non-Pro" it has more "Pro" substance than it seems "prima facie"... mmm, or "prima ballerina" for that matter!
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
1 min confidence: peer agreement (net): +8
He had many professions / It had many professions
Explanation: You can use "he" if you want to "huanize" it.
JohnMcDove United States Local time: 19:17 Native speaker of: Spanish