How would you translate "Desgranaban" in this sentence?
Todavía recuerdo aquel amanecer en que mi padre me llevó por primera vez a visitar el Cementerio de los Libros Olvidados. Desgranaban los primeros días del verano de 1945 y caminábamos por las calles de una Barcelona atrapada bajo cielos de ceniza y un sol de vapor que se derramaba sobre la Rambla de Santa Mónica en una guirnalda de cobre líquido.
I read the translations but it obviously sounds poetic and I'm not sure what the literal translation is and I'd like to know what the poetic translation is.
3 Answers
The verb relates to the threshing process of removing the wheat from the chaff. Maybe something like - the first days of summer had bloomed, or casting off the first days of summer, or we emerged from the first days of summer.
I read the book awhile ago and found the very descriptive language difficult. My Spanish has improved so perhaps I should go back to it.
Yo no sé cómo sería de modo poético pero lo traduciría como si dijera transcurrían.
Reading your question, the first thing that came to mind was the first sentence in Gabo’s “Cien años de sole-dad”. I had to go back and read the latter. It is different, but very similar.
I agree with both Mardle’s and Polenta’s interpretations of “desgranar”. I have to offer “It was the first days of summer, 1945” or maybe “the summer of 1945 was just beginning.”
It sounds like a great book. What is the title and the author? I want it.
I’ve read everything written by Gabo and need to broaden my horizon. I particularly like Mario Vargas Llosa and Isabel Allende. I’m open to any recommendations of other contemporary authors from Latin América or Spain. I like history and historical novels. I do not like English translated to the Spanish because it’s rarely the same as… same as… I can’t think of the word.
