Help on translation

Question

Thanks again for the translation help last time!

Now I have another passage that need somebody's help on translation:

"Pero sí el menosprecio manifestábase de ostensible manera, no así en la vida interna social, especialmente si se trataba de histrionisas famosas por su belleza o por su ingenio. Siempre así: el eterno femenino domina épocas, pueblos y pasiones. Por efecto de esta equivocada situación social, de dedicaron, en general, al teatro personas de baja extracción, y, por lo tanto, de escasa cultura, o de familias, en que de antiguo, venía vinculada la profesión farandulera, siendo contadas las que figuran en el índice de cómicos, como procedentes de ilustre progenie."

Once again, I really appreciate for your help !

Answer 1

Thank you qfreed! Since I need to translate this quote for my paper, I need to know exactly how to translate this passage correctly. I have trouble on translating "se trataba de" in this context. In addition, is the central theme of this quote means even though the low culture is contempted, those actresses, particularly those famous for their beauty and ingenuity, would be excuse. It is because it was an epoch of dominate by eternal femine, people and passions? Thank again!

Oh, I see. Beyond my abilities. Await a native. - 0074b507, Jan 6, 2012

but se trataba de is probably "if it concerned" " if it was about" "if it dealt with", etc. - 0074b507, Jan 6, 2012

Thank you so much qfreed! - dumplings8, Jan 16, 2012

Answer 2

Hmm. Did someone help you last time without you first making an attempt of your own? This is pretty well written. Did you try the machine translator? It can provide a good starting point for well written Spanish?

Then you need to look up the words that the machine could not recognize like:

histrionisa=actress

and words that may be misspelled (mistyped)

prodedente

Aviso

La palabra prodedente no está en el Diccionario.

probably procedente

Once you have the gist of the text you can ask more specific questions.

Thank you! Yes I misspelled it. It should be procedente. - dumplings8, Jan 6, 2012