Trying to Translate

I'm trying to learn Spanish by watching telenovelas. Please share your comments about the shows, too. I know I'm not the only English-speaking person who's hooked on telenovelas!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

You didn't think I was done with Duelo character names?

EDELMIRA is the owner of the strip club (or whatever that place is. Gentleman's club?)

GRANILLO is Edelmira's cross-dressing employee.

DR VASQUEZ is Emilio's doctor.

JUANITO is Marianita's little singing friend.

CASTULO is Maximo's good-looking, willing-to-kill-Santos sidekick.

IFIGENIO is the servant who drove Thelma to Arriconada, or La Rinconada, or whatever Maximo's house is called. (If I were writing this show, I would have fewer servants. Let Castulo or Jaime drive the stagecoach. Or I'm sure Vera could handle it. Or Maximo could hire Gaspar to do the job. But no one asks me.)

I'm sure I'm still forgetting a few characters, but that's good because it will give me an excuse for yet another lazy blog post.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Duelo de Pasiones, Thursday February 15

My recap for yesterday's episode:

Duelo de Pasiones, Thursday February 15 - Luba freaks out!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Trying to translate "Insensible a Ti"

I've been trying to translate the lyrics to the Duelo de Pasiones theme song, "Insensible a Ti" by Alicia Villareal. I don't want to post the Spanish lyrics here on the blog because it would be a copyright violation, but you'll find them here and here.

You'll see that there are differences between the lyrics given on these two sites. I think there are mistakes in the Esmas version (for instance, the line "porque contigo estoy en celo," which means "because with you I am in heat," doesn't fit the rest of the song at all! The correct version seems to be "porque contigo estoy en cero," or "because with you I am at zero.")


I also think the lyrics were changed for the show, because most versions of the lyrics I found online say "I have deceived you... I have lied to you" but I could swear on the show she's singing "You have deceived me... you have lied to me," which is what the Esmas version says. I've decided to go with the original version although the second one does better fit the show.

My Spanish is nowhere near good enough for this task, so I know I've made mistakes in this translation and would appreciate any and all corrections!

"Indifferent to You" - English lyrics

I'm no longer going to hide myself from you
In order to hide my feelings.

I don't want to cry anymore, hiding the love
that I feel for him.

Now it's time for you to find out
the things that go on when you're away.

I'm no longer going to pretend the love that really I no longer feel.
So many times I've cried from feeling so weak, so alone,
lived in torment.

You can't light your bonfire anymore
Now I'm cold to your caresses
I'm indifferent to you

I have deceived you so many times
I have looked for his burning kisses in private
I have lied to you so many times
That I can no longer go on hiding the truth.
I live a forbidden love that steals my heartbeats
but I can't hide it anymore because with you I'm at zero
and he turns me on to a thousand.
I'm indifferent to you

Indifferent to you, he turns me on to a thousand
I'm indifferent to you


In the TV version, instead of "I have deceived you so many times/I have looked for his burning kisses in private," she sings something like "You have deceived me so many times/So many times that I can't imagine it." And instead of "I live a forbidden love that steals my heartbeats" she sings "A duel of passions is what I have lived."


I imagine the TV version is supposed to represent the feelings of Soledad and/or Alina, whereas the original version reflects what Alvaro thinks Soledad is thinking!

Some online sources I used in this attempt to translate:


Yahoo! Spanish-English Dictionary
Babel Fish Translation
WordReference Forums - To get hot

Friday, February 09, 2007

Just testing

I've upgraded to the supposedly new-improved Blogger, and am just checking to see if I can still post as usual. Looks like I can.

Duelo de Pasiones, Thursday February 8

My recap of this episode is posted at Caray Caray:

Duelo de Pasiones, Thursday February 8 - It's Alvaro's turn to be locked up!

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

What, MORE Duelo de Pasiones character names?

How boring can I be with all these names? Very!

CARMEN is Santos's mother.

CRISTOBAL is the priest who inexplicably does nothing to help Alina and Soledad even though he knows about their plight. I guess it's God's will.

REBECA is Thelma's aunt (her name was finally mentioned on tonight's episode!)


JAIME is Vera's boyfriend or husband.

SUSI is Angel's nurse who for some reason wears teeny-tiny skirts.

Not sure but I think Carmen's confidante is named Chela. As for the dog -- Tonki, Donky, Tonqui, Donkey? Tahnkee maybe? No tengo la menor idea.

Gaspar El Stripper

Here's a webpage about the wrestling career of Rene Goméz (aka Intocable), who plays Gaspar on Duelo de Pasiones: El Intocable

It says he's also been known as Valentino, Spice Boy Randy, and Randy El Stripper. Really, Gaspar, what would Luba say?!!

Friday, February 02, 2007

Duelo de Pasiones, Thursday February 1

Here's my recap of the most recent episode of Duelo de Pasiones:

Duelo de Pasiones, Thursday February 1 - Alina grows a brain for half a minute

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Power outage

There's a power outage here. I'm posting this because I have a UPC for my computer, but the battery will only last about 20 minutes. If the power doesn't come back on by 7, I won't be able to watch and recap Duelo de Pasiones tonight for Caray Caray. I hope that doesn't happen, but you never know around here.

LATER: Well, my power is back on. As I said, you never know around here, but it's not flickering so I think it will stay on. Whew.