Translation Exercise for Beginners: Number 12
This is a thread specifically designed with beginners in mind. If other exercises intimidate you this one shouldn't! Keep in mind that it doesn't matter if you don't get it all right. The actual process of attempting translation, and then correcting yourself is what helps us learn!
There are three rules:
- Don't look at other people's translations until you have made your own.
- Do not use a translation engine. (Although you can use a dictionary)
- Do vote for the best answers and this thread. If there is a tie, votes make a difference.
So here is our sentence for Number 12:
"Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya religión, política, o sindicato, algo sucede."
César Chávez
Please remember to answer and then vote! This helps our thread and helps to choose a winner because if there is a word-for-word tie the answer with the most votes wins! The winner automatically recieves 20 reputation points not counting any votes he/she may have garnered. Every participant receives a vote from me as well for participating. Keep in mind that if you need some time to come up with an answer and if the thread disappears you can find it under the category: Games and Challenges. Have fun! The translation will be posted on Wednesday.
13 Answers
"Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya religión, política, o sindicato, algo sucede."
César Chávez
When there are a united people who believe firmly in something, whether religion, politics or unions, something happens.
César Chávez
Not sure how to handle the "ya".
When there are united people who believe firmly in something, religion, politics, or the union, immediately something suceeds.
This my attempt - not sure if the "sindicato" only refers to "workers' rights" though.
It could be "unions" in general
"Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya religión, política, o sindicato, algo sucede."
When there are people who are united, in religion, politics or workers' rights THEN something happens.
Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya religión, política, o sindicato, algo sucede
When there are united people who firmly believe in something, religion, politics or union, something finally happens.
This one took me a whole night to think about it..
Didn't know a little word like "ya" could cause so much trouble 
"Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya religión, política, o sindicato, algo sucede." - César Chávez
"When there are people together that believe in something strongly, whether religion, politics, or union, things happens." - César Chávez
I changed it a little, I don't know if that fixed the problem your referring to though renae...
When people are united who believe in something strongly, (as) religion, politics or trade unions, something happens.
I could not find a word that would fit into the ya so I added (as) in its place. If I were to translate this as to make it more understandable and emphazise it better in English, I would have said something such as, something always happens. Something happens all the time but with such staunch beliefs it always happens, making it a definite.
Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya religión, politica. o sindicato, algo sucede.
When united people firmly believe in something, whether religion, politics, or a workers' union, it is a success.
When people are united who believe in something steadfastly, whether religion, politics, or worker's rights, something happens.
The "something happens" sounds really awkward but I don't know how to translate it better.
My attempt at an edit after the "ya" hint (although I probably bungled it worse):
When people are united who believe in something steadfastly, immediately religion, politics, or worker's rights, aught to succeed.
Congratulations, Ken for writing the most true blue translation possible with the given circumstances! You are best answerer after running second so many times!
Congatulations everyone for a really devoted job to this exercise! I was hoping that someone would be struck with the obvious answer! I know I was a little hard on you this time, but I thought this sentence would be a valuable tool to learn how to derive meaning from a sentence when it is implied.
So here is the long awaited explanation:
I will start by inserting the implied meaning:
Cuando hay gente unida que cree en algo firmamente, ya (seá) religion, (ya seá) política, o (ya seá) sindicato, algo sucede.
Like this our English minds can now fathom how the sentence should read:
When there are united people who firmly believe in something, now it will be religion, now it will be politics, now it will be unions, things happen.
This still does not make sense in English, so we have to ponder how to state the same meaning in a manner that "makes sense", but is true to the intention of the author. If we return to the original sentence we see that "ya" is implied for all three words, religion, politics and unions but only need be used once. This means we want to simplify the English version too. It would naturally follow that we should restate it this way:
When there are united people who firmly believe in something, now religion, now politics, now unions, things happen.
We are getting closer! But we, as English speakers, would never state a sentence this way! Here is where our practice with our language comes in! Let's tighten it up and polish it up a bit!
When there are united people who firmly believe in something, now religion, here politics, or there a union, things happen.
Beautiful huh?
Thank you everyone for participating! I had fun. See you at Number 13!
Last chance!
We are on the last leg of our journey with Exercise Number 12: Now would be the time to give it a try, vote or edit! (whichever side of the coin you are on!) See you tomorrow!
Hi everyone! We have one more day before the English translation is due. Any more ready to rise to the challenge?!
Because this particular translation exercise has an implied meaning to it, I am going to leave you a hint and a chance to attempt an edit!
Hint: Just because the word is small and doesn't seem to affect the sentence does not give you license to ignore it. There is a reason it is there. How would you say this sentence in English for it to make sense?
