Please help with translation "Dame alivio cuando esté angustiado."
En Salmo 4:1 (NVI) hay una siguiente frase: Dame alivio cuando esté angustiado. Esta frase está escrita en la (NIV) como: give me relief from my distress. Yo no entiendo por qué usando la palabra “cuando” en lugar “de.” También, no entiendo usando la palabra “esté” en lugar “mi.” Además, la palabra “angustiado” está un adjetivo pero “distress” está un sustantivo. ¿Son estas dos traducciones diciendo lo mismo? Por favor identifique cualquier error en mi español. Gracias por su ayuda.
Jim
2 Answers
Hello, Jgundy
To begin with, I think you are trying too hard to translate this phrase 'word for word'. I used to do this many years ago until a native lady from Colombia, who was giving me Spanish lessons in her home, told me that I would never make real progress until I learnt how Spanish natives express ideas in their own language which, I have learnt, can often be very different from English.
The Spanish people like all other people groups have their own unique way of expressing ideas (although some common ground exists between other Romance languages like French, Italian and Portuguese which are in the same family group; having the same Latin base!)
The heart of the message is correctly translated here! It doesn't really matter if the Spanish choose to use cuando instead of de. Sometimes we need to simply acccept how people from another country do things without overanalysing the differences!
They are, in essence, translating the central idea as saying: " Give me relief when this thing distresses me" The idea is the same The Psalmist is imploring God to give him distress from whatever was troubling him.
Esté is the subjunctive form of estar so he is saying: Give me relief when (whenever) I might be distressed!
The verb estar follows cuando with a future implication (ie: On those occasions whenever I might be distressed) which reveals an uncertainty in the mind of the Psalmist concerning when those occasions might arise. The uncertaintly does not concern whether God might answer his prayer/s.
It is perfectly natural and understandable to want to understand how the Spanish natives express ideas in their own language so that you can learn how to accurately communicate the same thoughts, ideas and feelings that you would have expressed in English but in Spanish.
In simple terms, what do you want to say in English? How do the Spanish communicate this idea, if they have an equivalent expression?
The more often you practise translating from Spanish into English the more you should, hopefully, observe and learn the ways Spanish natives express the same ideas in very different ways! Enjoy learning!
I hope this helps 
Sólo mi intento: "give me relief when I might be distressed".
