Spanish term
United Kingdom
MA with Distinction in Translation
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English
a portagayola
I was wondering if any linguists or Spanish native speakers could help me to understand this term "a portagayola" in this context:
"Entenderá que para Sevilla esa semana es el momento medular del año, caballero, y no le hablo sólo de una cuestión de fe. Justo antes de recogerle, a portagayola , en el ascensor, he estado hablando con el presidente de la Asociación de Hoteleros Sevillanos. Me ha pedido explicaciones, porque una historia como la del Asesino de la regañá, descontrolada, puede ser nefasta."
It's a passage from a book called El asesino de la regañá by Julio Muñoz Gijón. The character speaking is the police commissioner in Sevilla and he is talking to a detective who has arrived from Madrid. He sent for the detective because of a murder that happened under strange circumstances in Sevilla, which has happened less than a month before Holy Week. The commissioner is expressing his worries about how news of the murder might affect the Holy Week celebrations. So he is describing how he is having to talk to the President of the Asociación de Hoteleros Sevillanos about the murder in order to calm his concerns.
I understand that a portagayola is the moment in bullfighting where the matador goes down on his knees before the bull comes out of the gate and then dodges it using his cape. So that maybe made me think that he is saying he was talking to the President during this moment at a bullfight. However he says "justo antes de recogerle", which is referring to how he has just now met the detective at the elevator so that they could have their meeting, which is happening in a police station, not a bullfighting ring. So that makes me a little confused, is he maybe saying he met the President in the elevator at the bullfighting ring?
I have also seen some people say this phrase can be used to say somebody is doing or saying something 'cheekily' or 'cockily', however I'm not sure how that would fit into this context.
I also considered whether this was maybe referring to a restaurant in Seville called Porta Gayola, but then it would be two words and capitalised in the book I think.
Sorry for such a long query, but if anyone could provide their understanding of this sentence then I would hugely appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
| 3 | blindly / in the dark / without truly understanding |
Susana Monsalve Antoranz
|
| 3 | on tenterhooks |
neilmac
|
Apr 5, 2021 07:48: neilmac changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
PRO (3): Toni Castano, Robert Carter, neilmac
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Proposed translations
Spain
Translator EN, FR, PT > ES
Native in: Spanish
Works in: English to Spanish, French to Spanish, Portuguese to Spanish
blindly / in the dark / without truly understanding
on tenterhooks
At least, that is what I get from the bullfight metaphor, the idea of waiting respectfully (kneeling) to "take the bull by the horns" (= talk to the detective),so to speak. :-)
The phrase "on tenterhooks" means "waiting nervously for something to happen."
Discussion
Thank you both kindly :).
That is the idea.
Something like "I had to brace myself for¨or ¨I bumped into such and such¨. The fact that the other character demanded explanations and the circumstances of the encounter complete the idea of having to face a tricky encounter totally unprepared.