Spanish Word of the Day

With all the fuss over the end of the word, I was wondering what to the actual Mayan people think of it. There are millions of them living in southern Mexico.

Quote: Wizard

With all the fuss over the end of the word, I was wondering what to the actual Mayan people think of it. There are millions of them living in southern Mexico.

The Maya, as a culture, have been extinct since before the Spaniards came to this side of the pond. It would be like asking Italians today what they think of the Roman holy chickens ritual.

BTW, see fi you can understand this:

Todo pasa y todo queda
Pero lo nuestro es pasar
Pasar haciendo caminos
Caminos sobre la mar

Nunca perseguí la gloria
Ni dejar en la memoria
de los hombres mi canción

Yo amo los mundos sutiles
Ingravidos y gentiles
Como pompas de jabón

Me gusta verlos pintarse
de sol y grana, volar
bajo el cielo azul temblar
subitamente y quebrarse

Caminante, son tus huellas el camino y nada más.
Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar
Al andar, se hace camino. Y al volver la vista atrás,
Se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar
Caminante, no hay camino. Sino estelas en la mar!

Quote: Nareed

The Maya, as a culture, have been extinct since before the Spaniards came to this side of the pond. It would be like asking Italians today what they think of the Roman holy chickens ritual.

Extinct may be too harsh, but they have certainly been in decline at least as long as they were in ascension.

Here's how the song ends:

Hace algún tiempo en ese lugar
Donde hoy los bosques se visten de espino
Se oyó la voz de un poeta gritar
"Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar"

Golpe a golpe
Verso a verso

Murió el poeta lejos del hogar
Le cubre el polvo de un país vecino.
Al alejarse le vieron llorar
"Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar"

Golpe a golpe
Verso a verso

Cuando el jilguero no puede cantar
Cuando el poeta es un peregrino
Cuando de nada nos sirve rezar
"Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar"

Golpe a golpe
Verso a verso


Come to think of it, this may be too subtle and advanced for the level of Spanish in this site....

Quote: Nareed

The Maya, as a culture, have been extinct since before the Spaniards came to this side of the pond. It would be like asking Italians today what they think of the Roman holy chickens ritual.

"There are an estimated 7 million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Ethnic Maya of Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras have managed to maintain substantial remnants of their ancient cultural heritage. " -- Wikipedia

I stand by my assertion. I know people from the area. theya re to the Maya what today's Italians are to Rome. I doubt even a small fraction can even read a Maya calendar, much less misinterpret it to read "the world ends in Dec. 23rd 2012 AD."

Any progress on the poem? I've declared it untranslatable as far as meter and rhyme goes. I could convey the meaning, but not with the force of the original.

Quote: Nareed

Cuando el jilguero no puede cantar
Cuando el poeta es un peregrino
Cuando de nada nos sirve rezar
"Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar"

Golpe a golpe
Verso a verso

Come to think of it, this may be too subtle and advanced for the level of Spanish in this site....

jilguero seems to be a small bird, like a finch


peregrino is a foreigner on some kind of pilgrimage


When the finch cannot sing
When the poet is a pilgrim
When it serves us nothing to pray
Traveler, there is no road
The way is made by walking"

Stroke by stroke
line by line

Your right, it doesn't sound very eloquent, but most songs are difficult to translate. I am confused by the part in quotes.

There are some articles that say that there is no movement among the Mayans regarding this weekend. I do recommend going to Coba as well as Chichen Itza. It is much more powerful to see a city in ruins still half covered by jungle. Coba is a little more difficult to get to, and may require renting a car and driving it over some potholes.

The rest is silence
Estos días azules y este sol de infancia

Lets try this:

All passes and all remains
But our lot is to pass
To pass blazing paths
Paths upon the seas

I never coveted glory
I did not try to impress with my song

I love the subtle worlds
Gentle and weightless
Like bubbles made of soap

I like to see them colored
of Sun and Crimson
under the blue sky fly
Suddenly to tremble and burst.

Traveler, it's your steps and nothign else that are the path
When you walk you blaze a trail, and when you look back
You see the road that can't be trod on.
Traveler, there are no paths, only wakes upon the seas!

The theme of the poem is an individual's life. The thing about there being no paths means the course of one's life is not set, but must be forged as one walks, figuratively, through time. The soap bubble, painted of Sun and crimson, suddenly trembling and bursting is partly a reference to the end of life (and partly a brief, yet deep description of the beauty found in an ordinary object, and by extension the beauty of even ordinary lives).

The last part:

When the songbird can't sing
When the poet is on a pilgrimage
When prayer is of no value
Traveler, there are no paths.

And then it breaks down.

But the meaning is an exhortation to forge your life, regardless of what else is going on or what help you have.

The middle part is Serrat's homage to the poet who wrote the first part <w>. Being buried in a foreign land, and having left his message behind.

For such a simple, short work, it's very profound.

Dr. Betty Jean Craige, recently retired director of the Willson Center for Humanities and professor at the University of Georgia, published a translation of Machado's poetry early in her career.

Nareed, I am very impressed with your translation.

Quote: Pacomartin

Nareed, I am very impressed with your translation.

It's ok, I guess.

Translating poetry is very hard. To preserve the rhyme and scan is almost impossible. That takes a poet re-telling the poem in another language, pretty much. For the layman, it's not enough to convey the meaning and style. You also need to convey the feel. That's hard.

For example:

"Pero lo nuestro es pasar" now that I think of it should be "Ours is to pass," rather than "our lot is to pass." You can spend hours on such details, too.