Viola troncada-- what does this mean'?

Question

can anyone please give me an adequate translation of this phrase. It's from Soneto CLXVI and I need to translate it for a lit. class. "viola troncada"
oh, also what is your opinion of how this other phrase: "luciente cristal" should be translated in the context of
"y mientras triunfa con desden lozano
del luciente cristal tu gentil cuello,"

thanks for the feedback!

Answer 1

Viola troncada is speaking of a cut flower. Troncada is from the verb troncar which means to cut off and viola in this case is speaking of the flower "violeta" or violet. Also luciente cristal means sparkling crystal. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

A bit more of where viola truncada appears would be useful. Literally it means a 'truncated' viola (ie the instrument, like a violin) but I think it might be figuratively used.

as to the other translation you must understand that translating poetry is very difficult, particularly this tuff!

I would translate luciente cristal as 'the cristal that shines' meaning it wears well and is a great adornment.
But the whole phrase is something like:

while your gentle neck, lustily disdainful, emerges triumphantly from the shining jewel.

as you can see this is not very poetic. And to make it poetic is a difficult task without rewriting to give the intent but not literally translate.

Good luck