As long as.........
As long as.........the hand that rocks the cradle is mine.
I think, as long as here is "mientras" and I translate this:
Mientras la mano que mece la cuna sea la mía.
Never fear my darling: As long as.........the hand that rocks the cradle is mine, you will be safe and sound.
Now here's the thing....
Why the article? It just feels right but why not Mientras la mano que mece la cuna sea mía? I think because "la mía" = lo de mi. and that "la" really = lo = lo de mi = la mía. While the hand the rocks the cradle is the one that is mine. Would it work with just "Mientras la mano que mece la cuna sea mía"?
What about "es la mía" if we don't go subjunctive and sub it out..... mientras in that sense means it has to sub out? Gracias.
Better to way to say as long as here?
What about "now here's the thing"? How would you say that guy? Gracias.
5 Answers
If you mean "as long as" in the sense of "provided that", or "under the condition that" you can also say "siempre que" or "con tal de que".
Regarding "la mía" vs. "mía", you have a good point in your suggested translation of "the one that is mine" (which admittedly sounds unusual in English, but it emphasizes that it needs to be specifically mine and nobody else's), vs. just "mine". I would suggest that this is the way we would underline the concept of "exclusively mine" in English.
Your question of "here's the deal" is clearly one of slang. You might hear "Lo que onda es..." or "Es la neta que..." (if you are using the expression to indicate that something is true and we need to face up to it). "Here's the deal" is a type of "slang of the day" in the US and would probably be translated in different regions by whatever the "slang of the day" in that specific area would be. In standard "across-all-age groups-and regions" Spanish you can always use the dictionary approved "Me pregunto por qué..." if you are saying something like "here's the deal...why is X true and not Y?"
All are correct, but in this context I would use "siempre y cuando".
Also, the subjuntive would be preferred in this construction (sea)
I've seen siempre y cuando before, but I don't really get it. Always and when? Siempre y cuando la mano que mece la cuna sea la mía.
I can see mientras, but siempre y cuando must be an idiom that means, as long as? Most idiomatic phrases actually have some meaning, like "nada más" where you can see it, but I really can't see how siempre y cuando works. Gracias.
I thought that after the verb "ser," you do not need the el/la with mío/mía?
La bici es mía instead of La bici es la mía.
And that el/la is used when you are saying things like, "Mine is faster than yours":
La mía es mas rápida que la tuya.
Siempre que la mano que mece la cuna sea la mía.
cuando la mano que mece la cuna es la mía.
Maybe this is clearer?
