Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

te tocan vivir estos tránsitos

English translation:

those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks

Added to glossary by teju
Apr 13, 2013 17:25
11 yrs ago
Spanish term

te tocan vivir estos tránsitos

Spanish to English Art/Literary Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting Photography exhibit - art
This is from an essay written by an artist about his paintings, part of an exhibit. He talks about the current situation in the Mexico-US border. I'm not sure what the author means here with "tránsitos". I had never heard before of a "violence bottleneck" either. If tránsitos here means violence, what's the best way to translate this phrase? Context:

Somos geográficamente uno de los cuellos de botella de tránsito de la violencia generada por el narcotráfico “la guerra inútil”, especialmente las fronteras, en mi caso Reynosa. Te tocan vivir estos tránsitos más continuos y más fuertes la sociedad tiende a insensibilizarse, el discurso es para que no se nos olvide que, a mi manera de ver, no es correcto, que violencia genera más violencia y que es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas.

Discussion

teju (asker) Apr 14, 2013:
Thank you Christine and Trad for your comments. And thanks to Robert for his fabulous translation.
Esmeralda Gómez Apr 13, 2013:
I am also of the opinion that the Spanish is not good, starting with the "te tocan vivir..." for "te toca vivir", etc. You will probably improve it in English...
Christine Walsh Apr 13, 2013:
If you have freedom to revise the text, I'd say your version is great: quite frankly, the original would benefit from some editing.
teju (asker) Apr 13, 2013:
I must add that my client allows me to edit the Spanish original, so I have complete freedom to revise it.
teju (asker) Apr 13, 2013:
Here's my first attempt: Geographically speaking, we are the bottleneck of the drug trade violence, this “useless war”, especially in the border areas – the Reynosa border in my case. Those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks, society then becomes desensitized with time, and the speech is given so we don’t forget – and I don’t agree with this – that violence generates more violence and that we need to bet on education, not bullets.
teju (asker) Apr 13, 2013:
It's another good option Christine, thanks for the suggestion.
Christine Walsh Apr 13, 2013:
Not really a translation here, but might fit context.
Christine Walsh Apr 13, 2013:
How about 'surges'?

Proposed translations

14 mins
Spanish term (edited): Te tocan vivir estos tránsitos más continuos y más fuertes
Selected

those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks

It looks like something is missing in the Spanish in both the first and second sentences here.

Suerte.

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Note added at 35 mins (2013-04-13 18:01:40 GMT)
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My suggested way our of this morrass:

Begin a new sentence with "discurso," which reads as follows:

The idea here is that we should not forget that violence only leads to more vivolence, and that we should be committed to books rather than bullets.

***

I definitely see the problem here, but it simply doesn’t make sense that he would be rejecting rather than affirming the thesis (i.e., “discurso”) that he is stating here. Thus, what "no es correcto" is the *reality* that "violence leads to more violence" and not the affirmation that this is what indeed occurs. I therefore see the confusion as resulting from poor writing (or perhaps transcribed unedited riffing) on the part of the inarticulate artist….

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Note added at 1 hr (2013-04-13 18:26:14 GMT)
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Spelling correction: "morass"

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Note added at 1 hr (2013-04-13 19:03:55 GMT)
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Or, for "...que es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas":

"that we should be filling minds with knowledge rather than gun cartridges of guns with bullets."
OR
"that we should eschew guns in favor of education."
Note from asker:
Ah, yes indeed! I'm translating artist statements for an exhibit and not everyone knows how to write. You have no idea how bad some of these essays are. I would need the Rosetta Stone to decipher what they mean. Thank you for your input.
Your opinion, please Robert. Above, when they mention "el discurso" are they referring to the last sentence "es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas"? I don't understand why he would say that he's against that? Am I reading it wrong?
I had to step away from my computer to get something to eat. Thank you for all your suggestions. I agree with your reasoning, he couldn't possibly be saying he's against education and for bullets, but that's what it says. I need to edit the original. What's sad is that this isn't the poorest written text of all, by far, this is one of the "good ones". As far as the last line, that is a famous quote from a speech someone made, it's fairly well-known in this border area, so I cannot do much tweaking with it. Thank you so much for any suggestions!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you very much Robert, it was very helpful."
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