"días de plomo y escarcha..."

Question

Here's the opening line from Zafon's latest novel: El prisionero del cielo

How would you translate "días de plomo y escarcha"?

I won't say mine yet so as to avoid influencing your choice

Answer 1

You said you are interested in the meanning of "plomo" in that expression día de plomo y escarcha. It refers to the color of the sky that has the color of lead on a frosty day: DULL and evenly gray.

Are you a native speaker? - lagartijaverde, Dec 3, 2011

Answer 2

It sounds like the description of a winter day - Days of lead and frost. Leaden skies?

yeah, it's the "plomo" I'm interested in :-) - lagartijaverde, Dec 3, 2011

Answer 3

It looks like Spanish uses the same metaphor as English. The dictionary here has:

a leaden sky -> un cielo plomizo

Yes that's my query really, why not plomizo instead of plomo? Artistic license or perfectly acceptable "normal" castellano? - lagartijaverde, Dec 4, 2011

Answer 4

Depends on context... is this about war?

Good guess, but if you read the opening sentence in the link - "Aquel año a la Navidad le dio por amanecer todos los días de plomo y escarcha. Una penumbra azulada teñía la ciudad, y la gente pasaba e largo abrigada hasta las orejas..." - KevinB, Dec 3, 2011