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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

para melones mi güerto

English translation:

\"blah, blah, blah\"

Added to glossary by Noni Gilbert Riley
Oct 10, 2015 18:09
8 yrs ago
Spanish term

para melones mi güerto

Spanish to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature Zarzuela - idiomatic expression
Lots of local colour floating around in this zarzuela "La del Soto del Parral", which premiered in 1927. It's set in Segovia and this expression appears in a conversation between Tío Prudencio, the Balladeer, and Tío Sabino, who is here it seems, making a pejorative comment about Sabino's writing skills, or maybe just showing his impatience, as Sabino reads out a first draft of one of his compositions:

TÍO PRUDENCIO Segunda parte, en la que continúa la primera. “Y sigue el tiempo pasando, pasan minutos enteros, pasan años, pasan días…”

TÍO SABINO Y pa melones mi güerto.

TÍO PRUDENCIO Oye que esto es cosa seria. ¿Eh?

btw, the writer here uses various techniques to convey local speech patterns, so "güenas" = buenas, "güerto" = huerto etc.


But I've hit a wall here: "if I wanted melons, I'd go to my vegetable patch / allotment", is the literal meaning I think, but I feel there must be something more idiomatic that I'm failing to come up with. Any inspired people out there?
Proposed translations (English)
4 +3 "blah, blah, blah"
2 I am the best at this / I have the best product

Discussion

Helena Chavarria Oct 11, 2015:
Yes, 'And cows eat grass' is my attempt to provide a 'contrapunto rural' and 'And you think you're a smartass/rse' is thinking of Sabino's next comment.
Charles Davis Oct 11, 2015:
@ Helena "And cows eat grass" is a nice idea, IMO: "el contrapunto rural de las ínfulas poéticas de Prudencio", as Bea so elegantly put it.

In fact if you were to post that I think I'd agree with it :)
Cecilia Gowar Oct 11, 2015:
@Charles Thanks... it is also vague enough to be safe...
Cecilia Gowar Oct 11, 2015:
Smartarse would be better, but isn't it a bit modern for the context??
Charles Davis Oct 11, 2015:
@ Cecilia Tempting, I admit :)
Helena Chavarria Oct 11, 2015:
Cows graze on grass;
And my candleholders are made of brass;
And you think you're a smartass.

Is it US or UK English?
Cecilia Gowar Oct 11, 2015:
um.... "my a**"?
Charles Davis Oct 11, 2015:
That's the sort of effect I mean Maybe not exactly that, but something silly that rhymes with "pass" would be a good idea, I think.
Helena Chavarria Oct 11, 2015:
Is 'And windows are made of glass' pathetic enough?

Poetic metre has never been my strong point, especially in Spanish, with all the dipthongs and the syllables between words!
Charles Davis Oct 10, 2015:
I think Bea's observation is the key to this. It was very astute to notice the ballad metre and assonance. What this means, I think, is that it's not so much a comment as a kind of parody; Prudencio is reciting his (not very inspired) ballad, and Sabino slips in a ridiculous nonsense line to complete the couplet. Our guesses at what it might mean are based on what we imagine somebody might say in that situation, but I think Sabino's line doesn't actually mean anything in itself. We can't find it as a set expression because it's not a set expression at all.

So really what you want is a line that will continue Prudencio's sequence in a ridiculous way, something incongruous, bathetic and funny:

PRUDENCIO
"And time keeps passing
Whole minutes pass
Years pass, days pass..."
SABINO
"-------------------------"
Helena Chavarria Oct 10, 2015:
cgowar was the first person to make a comment.
Noni Gilbert Riley (asker) Oct 10, 2015:
@cgowar, Charles, Helena, Beatriz I think you've all set me on the right track and it would be useful to have something for the glossary - will someone post please?
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro Oct 10, 2015:
Noni No tienes que darte ningún slap. Si es para subtítulos tienes mucha libertad y estoy segura de que encontrarás una buena expresión ¡suerte!
Noni Gilbert Riley (asker) Oct 10, 2015:
@cgowar Me encanta "bollocks" pero siempre tengo en cuenta la probable afluencia de turistas cuyo primer idioma no sea el inglés, y me controlo. Aún así de vez en cuando me permito algún gesto oculto.
Noni Gilbert Riley (asker) Oct 10, 2015:
@Beatriz Tu respuesta es de lo más culta y informativa pero me hace darme cuenta de que me faltaba un detalle en mi "post" que es que esto es para sobretítulos, con lo cual nos libramos de tener que rimar ni que ser tan exactos, sino que tenemos que dar la idea general al público de qué se está cantando en cada momento.

Me da mucha rabia, porque soy tan crítica con la gente cuando no da todo el contexto. Slapped wrist.
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro Oct 10, 2015:
Noni Aciertas al decir que Sabino está impaciente. Quiere saber y no puede resistir la tentación de cortar la redundancia poética de Prudencio. Hubiera podido decir cualquier cosa, pero lo del huerto es un buen recurso cómico porque encaja bien en el marco rural de la zarzuela y al mismo tiempo mantiene la misma versificación. Sería como el contrapunto rural de las ínfulas poéticas de Prudencio.
La composición de Prudencio es un romance (versos de ocho sílabas que riman en asonante [e-o] los pares y quedan libres los impares).
Separo los versos:

Y sigue el tiempo pasando
pasan minutos enteros
pasan años, pasan días...
Y pa melones mi güerto

En esto que llega al pueblo
la Consuelo, la que tuvo
amores con el Meterio
el que se casó con Juana

Y por donde la Consuelo
en la ciudá se ha hecho novia
del que fraguó el casamiento
del Meterio con la Juana;
y ahora viene lo tremendo.
Dame, Virgen soberana
valor pa seguir el verso,
porque me tiembla la mano
y se me trasuda el cuerpo.
Dame tu pluma, San Roque;
dame papel, San Aurelio.

Aquí Sabino vuelve a cortar la redundancia poética, pero esta vez lo hace en prosa.
http://www.zarzuelaoviedo.es/programas/libreto-ladelsotodelp...
Helena Chavarria Oct 10, 2015:
Or 'Big deal!'

Meaning, 'If you're looking for melons, mine are the best'. Though obviously their conversation has nothing to do with melons!
Cecilia Gowar Oct 10, 2015:
I wonder if you could say something like: "Bollocks"?
Cecilia Gowar Oct 10, 2015:
Ooops! Had not seen your post Charles! You are right, that is the feeling... but I still think it is related somehow to the whole plot and not to those few words Prudencio read...
Cecilia Gowar Oct 10, 2015:
Related to the background? I had a quick reading through the full text and there is a lot happening.... if I understand well there is an impending wedding and many are against it. I believe this and other matters are bothering Sabino when Prudencio starts his reading... his lines, after the excerpt you published, are "Sigue. Ha sido un desahogo"....
Charles Davis Oct 10, 2015:
I wonder if it's playing on the expression "para melones Valencia", which I think goes back to a sainete by Ramón de la Cruz but had become something of a popular expression. But even if so, I'm not sure what he might be implying by it, except a general sense of bringing the tone down with a bump.

It's certainly taken as a disrespectful remark by Prudencio. Sabino's next line is "Sigue, ha sío un desahogo".
Helena Chavarria Oct 10, 2015:
I'm guessing I immediately thought along the lines of 'So what?'; 'Oh, yeah?'; 'Tell me something I don't know', etc.

Prudencio talks about the pasing of time and Sabino's really not interested; his comment is practical and down to earth
Charles Davis Oct 10, 2015:
@Noni Given that "melón" can mean an "hombre torpe y necio" (¡vaya melón de tío!), I was wondering whether this was playing with that meaning, or perhaps with some extended meaning along the lines of a load of tedious nonsense (in other words, as you say, "if I wanted a melon/idiot/nonsense I've got enough in my vegetable patch"). But I've just tried it on my in-house consultant, from whom it provoked an immediate chuckle, and she says she understands it to mean "¡Venga ya!", "No me lo creo".
Cecilia Gowar Oct 10, 2015:
Hi Noni! The expression is not familiar.... what is the meaning, within the context?

Proposed translations

+3
13 hrs
Selected

"blah, blah, blah"

Or "pooh-pooh".
Charles more or less sums up my reasoning in the Discussion comments.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2015-10-11 07:48:10 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/blah-blah...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2015-10-11 07:48:46 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/pooh-pooh

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2015-10-11 07:51:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The four lines by Tio P all begin with "pa-", which inspires the retort "Pa melones...". In order to achieve a similar syllabic parody, we'd need to know how you rendered Tio P's lines in translation.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2015-10-11 07:54:56 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

For example, if you are using "pass/time passes", in a more modern context our interlocutor Tío Sabina might say "I pass!" or "Pass the sick bag", although these examples may be anachronistic...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 hrs (2015-10-11 08:01:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

He could exclaim, for example, ¡pa....panatas!...
Peer comment(s):
agree Álvaro Espantaleón Moreno
25 mins
agree Charles Davis : Very good point about the alliteration.
1 hr
agree Luz Esther : Okay, I agree also with that
4 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "This is going to be very useful - not sure yet whether I shall use this verbatim or work on a variation which echos the translation of the previous sentences. Many thanks to all - I enjoyed all the contributions."
12 hrs

I am the best at this / I have the best product

Hi, usually when you say you have the best product, or if you are the best at something. I am from Mexico and that is how we use it.
But I am not sure, perhaps if you could share rest more of the context it can be clearer what they are talking about.
Hope this helps!
Something went wrong...
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