A native speaker's opinion on possible plays on words

Question

I am translating a short story and I have come across a very interesting sentence.

Al borde del agua se apiñaban los berros, las pequeñas matas de color fresa y las encendidas florecillas malva, que los contemplaron curiosamente.

I have translated this as 'At the edge of the water grew watercress, small bushes bursting with colour and glowing purple flowers, which contemplated the horse and the boy curiously.' But while looking up the meaning of the words, I realised that as well as the meanings I used, 'berro' means 'angry' in Caribbean Spanish, 'matas' means 'you kill', encendida means 'fiery, passionate, heated' and 'malva' is in the phrase 'criar malvas' which means to be pushing up daisies (dead). The context of the sentence is that the boy just 'kidnapped' the horse and other bad things have happened, etc.

So when you as a native speaker read the sentence, do you feel as though this is a play-on-words? As though on one level she is describing a pretty scene by the river and another level the flowers are metaphors for death?

Thank you so much.

Can't help with the translation, but I certainly enjoyed the thread! - Jubilado, Oct 26, 2012

Answer 1

Mata as noun is a "plant", it is specially certain kind of plant that doesn't have a hard trunk or it is just a short (little) plant with -mostly- a short life, or it is used to refer to a group of plants that have grown from the same roots or underground trunk; it shouldn't be called "árbol" or "arbusto".

An example of a mata in Spanish is the bananas tree, which depending on the species of bananas may have different names like "mata de plátanos", "mata de guineos" or "mata de bananas".

I would modify a little the translation given by Kiwi-Girl, saying:

Nestled together at the edge of the water were watercress, small pink bushes and bright purple flowers, which contemplated them with curiosity.

If you may understand "strawberry red" as "pink" in English, it would be fine as it was (I am not very skillful in English and even less describing colors).

In the sentence, those plants were staring on the other characters (the horse and the boy), not otherwise.

I would recommend you to be more literal and take the easy possibities, your interpretations were way too complicated, but I noticed that you already know a lot of expressions which is cool. =)

Thank you Caefuego :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 25, 2012

Thanks to you. When I first saw the sentence in Spanish it seemed impossible for me to translate it, so you did a very good work, actually, I even cheated taking it as basis. - -cae-, Oct 25, 2012

Well... I cheated taking almost all your translation, in fact. lol. - -cae-, Oct 25, 2012

Hola Carlos! : ) - rac1, Oct 25, 2012

Hola Annie. =) - -cae-, Oct 25, 2012

Yes I agree it was certainly a tough one to translate. - UrictheOddball, Oct 26, 2012

Good answer, Cae, after Kiwis answer I became most uncertain as to who was looking at whom.. - annierats, Oct 30, 2012

Answer 2

Not answering your question but just an alternative translation suggestion (although without context this is partly guesswork) :

Al borde del agua se apiñaban los berros, las pequeñas matas de color fresa y las encendidas florecillas malva, que los contemplaron curiosamente.

Edit, gracias a Caefuego - which comtemplated 'them' (not the other way around.

Nestled together at the edge of the water were watercress, small strawberry red bushes and bright purple flowers which they contemplated curiously.

ups - thanks Caefuego ... which contemplated 'them' not the other way around :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 25, 2012

Answer 3

Sorry, I forgot to mention that this is a children's story, so simplest is certainly the best, but thank you for your comments. Are there any thoughts on the double meanings as mentioned in the question?

Yo opino que tienes mucha imaginación. :) - -cae-, Oct 30, 2012

Uritche, me encanta tu prosa. Pero su nivel tal vez sea muy alto para un niño. Piénsatelo. - francobollo, Oct 30, 2012

Answer 4

If you wanted to take more "poetic license" with the translation, I think you could potentially translate it as:

"Huddled at the edge of the water were the watercress, small strawberry red bushes and flushed purple flowers, that contemplated them curiously."

I think, if the watercress are peering at the two, "huddled" allows for the implication of the watercress to be sentient and, in this instance, judgmental. If they're nestled, they're stagnant, but if they are huddled by the edge of the water, it's as if they are watching/contemplating them more.

I hope that made sense.

(I also added amended "flushed" for "bright" because, again, it adds a human like quality to the watercress, which I think is how the author originally intended.)

Just my thoughts.

Very nice! - francobollo, Oct 30, 2012

Answer 5

At the edge of the water crowded with watercresses, small bushes of color strawberry and the frenetic fioretti mauve that contemplated curiously.

just trying

Answer 6

Is there anyone who can answer the question?

I think we would have to read the entire story, but , I think , if it is for children, or even normal adults, it is just a description where the flowers have life. - annierats, Oct 30, 2012

Answer 7

Al borde del agua se apiñaban los berros, las pequeñas matas de color fresa y las encendidas florecillas malva, que los contemplaron curiosamente.

Do I feel as though this is a play-on-words? As though on one level she is describing a pretty scene by the river and another level the flowers are metaphors for death?

There is nothing in this phrase the indicates there's a play on words to me or a dichotomy between a beautiful river scene and metaphors of death. Sorry! I just don't see it.

Yours is happy scene.. flowers and bushes that have been humanized and can contemplate people passing by.