The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41674   Message #2804309
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
05-Jan-10 - 05:44 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: A La Nanita - verses in Spanish
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A La Nanita - verses in Spanish
The translation seems pretty good to me. You are quite right that literal translations can miss the meaning; they are the bare bones on which to build a meaningful translation (I remember my German teacher saying that).

I don't know much Spanish (and that border Mexican) but suggestions on a couple of words-

delirio- frenzy; I agree it doesn't quite fit; in English we generally mean something else by it than the meaning wanted here- here it means each word is full of meaning, love, honor, adoration, all together. Now a word to condense all that?? Roget's Thesaurus may help.

(In Spanish slang, delirio also means nonsense, according to an entry in Velasquez, but that is not the meaning here either). Also used in idioms like Me gusto con delirio- I'm crazy about it. con delirio- madly.
A Spanish-English (or....) dictionary can't show all the implications a word may have.

Ruiseñor is one word.
(In Spanish dialect it may be 'Ruiseñol- note by Victoria de los Angeles to some of the folk songs she sang.)

Wallflowers are known to any flower gardener, they are quite hardy souls in most temperate areas, and often appear in border plantings.