una maquina de tiempo

Question

Hi, I wanted to know if this sentence in spanish makes sense to anybody:

" La liberalización de la vida cultural emergió en España después de treinta y seis anos del confinamiento en una máquina de tiempo que Francisco Franco construyó para regresar a los tiempos de los Reyes Católicos. "

My friend tells me that it sounds like English but I want it to sound like
Spanish, como puedo hacer esto'

Answer 1

I agree with James. If you want to use the idea of confinement, you must also use the time bubble or time warp idea.

Answer 2

Hi, I wanted to know if this sentence in spanish makes sense to anybody:

una máquina de tiempo

Can you make it snow or rain with that? I know -context.

I think the reason that your description sounds strange to them is because it is incomplete.
I read it as Franco built a time machine 36 years ago and placed Spain's cultural life in it. He wanted to return it to the days of the Catholic Kings.

Was he able to?
If not, what happen to it while it was in the time machine for 36 years?

Is it emerging from being stagnant for 36 years or is it coming back from being like the days of the Catholic Kings?

If it is the fact that the description is disjointed, I find that interesting that they associate that with English.

Answer 3

Wow, I guess it does sound confusing when you say it like that, haha. Basically, Spain faced 36 years of repression under Franco and once Franco's reign was over, Spain liberalized alot including their culture. This sentence is my opening sentence in my essay where I compare the cultural life of Spain during Franco's time and after Franco's time and how it changed.

Answer 4

Wow, I guess it does sound confusing when you say it like that, haha. Basically, Spain faced 36 years of repression under Franco and once Franco's reign was over, Spain liberalized alot including their culture. This sentence is my opening sentence in my essay where I compare the cultural life of Spain during Franco's time and after Franco's time and how it changed.

I assumed that was what you were trying to say. Now let's see someone put that into Spanish. It's beyond my abilities.

Answer 5

Hi, I wanted to know if this sentence in spanish makes sense to anybody:

" La liberalización de la vida cultural emergió en España después de treinta y seis anos del confinamiento en una máquina de tiempo que Francisco Franco construyó para regresar a los tiempos de los Reyes Católicos. "

My friend tells me that it sounds like English but I want it to sound like

Spanish, como puedo hacer esto?

to starters write años not anos.
La vida cultural en España fue liberada despues de haber estado estancada por treinta y seis años. Francisco Franco y su intento de regresar a su paiz a la epoca de los reyes Catolicos fracaso rotundamente.

O,
La msaquina de tiempo de Francisco Franco no pudo regresar a España a la epoca de los reyes Catolicos. La vida cultural de España fue liberada despues de estar estancada por treinta y seis años.

note the key alt" plus the keys 1,6, and 4 will give you the letter ñ.

Answer 6

When I first read your sentence in Spanish I thought Franco was a genius who built a time machine sort of like? 'Back to the future? the movie.

I like Gus? translation a lot, and this is my take on it:

La cultura en España fue forzada a vivir a la antigua como en la época de los reyes católicos por treinta y seis años bajo el poder de Francisco Franco. Sin embargo al término de su reinado España logro por fin la liberación especialmente de su cultura.

Answer 7

I liked your first attempt and understood just what you meant. However, I have found that whenever I try to express something clever in Spanish I am told to be more explicit and to drop whatever I thought was clever.

Answer 8

hahahaha, thats why I put "maquina del tiempo" in quotes so they wont' take it literally

Answer 9

" La liberalización de la vida cultural emergió en España después de treinta y seis anos del confinamiento en una máquina de tiempo que Francisco Franco construyó para regresar a los tiempos de los Reyes Católicos. "

Part of the problem is logical rather than grammatical. It makes no sense to say that the culture was confined in a time machine. That makes me picture the culture sitting patiently inside a Victorian box (a la the movie of the Jules Verne story), waiting for something to happen. We usually talk about people being transported in a time machine, not confined in one. If you wanted to use the concept of being confined within a temporal bubble, isolated from the time of the rest of the world, you would have to use something else, like "time warp." On the other hand, if you want to stress that the nation was transported back in time, I don't think you can use the idea of confinement. Confinement is static and stationary, while a time machine is dynamic and involves travel.

Answer 10

very true, thanks James!

Answer 11

I love your remarks,James

Answer 12

I love your remarks,James

I´m not sure I agree. There may be semantics in the concept of time machines etc, but the problem, as the poster herself realises is that it "sounds English". This is because of two words - emergió and confinamiento - which I don´t think I have seen in Spanish.

I don´t claim to know the perfect answer. My attempt would be:

"La vida cultural de España se fue liberalizando después de treinta y seis años de reclusión en una máquina de tiempo ..."

Answer 13

"La vida cultural de España se fue liberalizando después de treinta y seis años de reclusión en una máquina de tiempo ..."

Although I agree that that sounds fine grammatically, it still makes no sense. Why would the cultural life of Spain spend 30 years sitting in a time machine? Was the machine broken, and Spain patiently waiting for a repairman to come and fix it?

The point is that the metaphor is broken. You get into a time machine, turn some dials, arrive at a different time, and get out. The trip takes a very short time. You don't spend 30 years in the machine.

The literal translation of time warp, which is what we usually say to describe a situation that is seemingly outside of normal time, is bucle temporal, but I'm afraid that that would not be understood by the average Spanish speaker. It is therefore probably better to rewrite the idea in Spanish. For example:

The country is stuck in a time warp.
El país se ha detenido en el tiempo (de...).