Garigolear

Question

Garigolear means "to adorn exaggerately"... and I'm looking for a word, or words in English that could carry that meaning, an at the same time that sounds poetical...

The book I'm translating carries that sense, so I don't want to break it by choosing wrong the words.

I need to translate the following...

Vio un sobre blanco que a la luz de la llama, en manuscrita y con letras muy garigoleadas decía "Teresa"

He saw a white envelope that at the candle´s light, in handwriting and with very well adorned letters said "Teresa"

Do you have a better translation... do you guys consider this one works... I'm open to suggenstions

This is "letra garigoleada"

It's not used in Spain. I never heard that world. "letras muy bien adornadas..." - RobertoSpain, Oct 26, 2010

Garigolear se usa en México, el problema es precisamente que no encuentro como traducirlo - Tonyriva, Oct 26, 2010

Answer 1

To adorn ornately. Could you use that construction.

with ornately adorned letters

or

with letters forming ornately adorned handwriting

Answer 2

overly ornate

I would take this answer considering this:

but garigolear is something that's extremely adorned, not neccesarely "well"

Answer 3

in handwriting and with very well adorned letters said "Teresa"

How about: with profusely ornamented letters...

Or even, with greatly embellished letters....but this sounds weird. I wonder...

Can anybody confirm this?

embellished (embellecido) is the word that came to my mind - 0074b507, Oct 26, 2010

Answer 4

overly ornate

Answer 5

TonyRiva

 

  Your question directs my thinking to the English word calligraphy. You can read a little about calligraphy here ----> Spanish ----> English.

Here are some images if you would like to look at them ----> Images

  

Perhaps you might translate from your book as :
He saw a white envelope that at the candle´s light, in handwriting and withvery well adorned letters magnificent calligraphy said "Teresa"

 

It's just one idea but perhaps you will like it.

 

Muchos saludos/Best regards,

Moe

The problem with calligraphy, is that as I understand it is the art to write "well" or with some prestablished letter molds, but garigolear is something that's extremely adorned, not neccesarely "well" - Tonyriva, Oct 26, 2010

Answer 6

"that at the candle's light, in (heavily/very) ornate handwriting said"

• Don't be too literal when translating, changing word order helps maintain rhythm sometimes, and that's very important to help keep prose poetic.

And I think Ornate is definitely the word for "garigoleadas", at least if referring to a font/handwriting.

Answer 7

It is also with a lot of "curly cues". I'm not sure about the word in English, but we do use "garigoleado" in Mexico a lot. For example "El tapizado del sofá está super garigoleado" The fabric of the sofa is "too busy"... "a lot of stuff going on in the fabric", "a lot of curly cues"...