Nos ha tocado...
The whole sentence is: "Nos ha tocado vivir en un mundo de locos." This is the opening sentence in a citizen review of a movie on a Spanish language website, obviously written by a native speaker. I think I get the meaning but I don't understand the construction..is it an idiom? Who is the subject of "nos ha tocado"? and "tocar vivir," what is that? Thanx.
14 Answers
I don't know a literal translation for this, but it means that is your destiny to live in a crazy world. The closest I can think of for "nos ha tocado" is "We have been chosen for" but it's not exact.
The subjet is implied and it is "Nosotros".
I guess Lazarus can give you a more technical answer.
It is difficult for a lot of us to translate a simple sentence, like the one I wrote above.
can you imagine if we had to translate the bible or Shakespeare.
No wonder, people say that is better to read literature in the original
language.But for most of us close enough is good enough, because,we dont have the time to learn other languages.
I forgot ,what was the original question, jajajaja, my functional memory is not working any more. Thank God for people like Heidita and Lazarus, they push us to dobetter than close enough is good enough or as a friend of mine used to say
" It is good enough for goverment work" !My God, we have to live in this crazy world!.
Okojo said:
No, That would be. "Nosotros nos hemos tocado vivir en un mundo de locos". The verb tense is "ha" singular referring to the film, the verb action is directed to "us" the general audience. Basically, another English phrase would be "the film is a looking glass to "us" to live in the world of crazies." Even though that is doesn't clarify.
Not quite. "Nosotros nos hemos tocado vivir en un mundo de locos" would be something like "We turned out to be the fate of ourselves in a crazy world", which of course, it makes no sense.
This is one of those things that doesn't translate well in English.
The others have given good suggestions of what it might translate to:
It has fallen upon us...
We are destined to...
It is our destiny...
It is our fate...
The 'ha' in "nos ha tocado" in no way refers to the film. It refers to what comes next in the sentence.
Me ha tocado la lotería.
Nos ha tocado ser pobres.
Me ha tocado ser soltero.
How about:
It has fallen to us to live in a crazy world.
Lazarus' explanation is the authoratative one. Here's my simple one: tocarse is often translated in English as "to be [one's] turn." Thus I get:
It is our turn to live in a crazy world.
Of course, that doesn't sound quite right, but it would easily lead to the better translations already given.
I got it, I got it and here it is
we have to live in a crazy world
an English expression would be that "the film let us see the world that the crazies live in.
yo lo pienso ironico, porque yo fui en Seattle durante el cumbre de APEC en 1999. La Seattle Polica no tuvó basta tenientes para la calles en el centro. Los "Demonstrators" fueron un mezcla de los usualmente grupos, por ejemplo ecologistas y unas presunto anarchistas. Las Anarchistas hicieron el daño a "Nike Town" y otro lugares en el centro de Seattle.
It is no idiom, but a normal usage of the verb, and a very common one:
Nos = Indirect object
Tocar = Intransitive verb (=corresponder). It has many translations in English: be one's turn, be due, be up to, end up with... Here, it means to be someone's fate (expressed with an indirect object).
vivir en un mundo de locos = subordinate clause; subject of the sentence.
Within the infinitive clause "vivir en un mundo de locos", the implicit subject is matches the indirect of the main clause ("nos"), so it is "nosotros".
Without the clause, the subject can be singular or plural, and the verb must agree, of course:
Nos ha tocado un presidente inútil.
Nos han tocado unos tiempos muy duros.
Heidi's suggestion is the closest one to the original meaning, but I have the feeling that there is a better translation; I just need to think of one.
Gus said:
nos ha tocado subject verb adverb
I am afraid not. "Nos" cannot be the subject, but only a direct or an indirect object, and "tocado" is part of the verb.
nos ha tocado
subject verb adverb
who or what is doing something, or expresing a state of being
is our fate or,
is our fate to live in a crazy world
tocar depends on how it is usein the sentence
it could mean:
tocar la puerta touch the door come in contact with something or somebody
tocar el piano play the piano come in contac with something"
tocar su mano touch her hand come in contact with somebody
me ha tocado pagar por la ronda it was my turn to pay for the drinks here is use as something that has happened to me or that it might happen. It could a be positive or negative situacion
In this context i would venture:
we are doomed to live....
As here it is clearly negative.
The review is of a movie se llama "Battle in Seattle" a documentary of the "anti-globalization" demonstrations a decade ago. It was on this site: http://opinion.labutaca.net/
I could guess that it was something like, "we live in a crazy world," but "nos ha tocado vivir" was strange to me.
It sounds to me (not a native speaker) like the critic is trying to say "it (the movie) put us in touch with living in a world of crazy people."
What's the movie? It would probably help to know. It may mean a crazy person's world if the movie is about someone with psychological problems.
