spain – Page 73 – don't confuse the narrator

found wanting

Poster (text - Yes, we want) — And apparently, we need (to), too

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reviewing the translation of a novel with the author. Time and again, we’ve come up against what she sees as limitations in the English language.

One of the biggest problem has been with words that are gender non-specific. With a word like “saint”, “patient” or “teacher” it’s unclear whether it refers to male or female, whereas in Spanish you have the pairs santa/santo, profesor/profesora, and with words like paciente it’s simply a question of changing the gender of the article: el paciente/la paciente.
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light and hope

Now that the weather’s improved and the council workers have managed to get out to do some jobs around the village, they’ve finally put in new lamp posts down by the river. Proper wrought iron ones that cast soft yellow light quite unlike the unnaturally white blare from the UFO-type double-headed farolas they put along by the polideportivo during a lull in the storms a month or so back.

Set against the snow-pocked backdrop of the Sierra de Gredos, the new Narnia-style lamp posts make me think of the Pevensie children helping Aslan banish the White Witch and release Narnia from the long winter.

They’ve also brought to mind a poem from a few years back:
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concrete imagery

No, I’m afraid it’s not a post about problems with abstractions in poetry, although that’s a subject dear to my heart. This is literally about images and concrete. Or, to be more precise, images and cement.

I used to think cement was a fairly uninspiring grey powder that came in tough brown paper sacks with nothing of any interest written on them.

I imagined that the packaging was designed to appeal to no-nonsense men who deal in practical information like quality codes or weights and measures. A bit like the empty sack in the photo.

But then I caught sight of un saco de cemento with the slogan:

Tu salud está en tus manos.
Este cemento no provoca dermatitis alérgica.

and realised the subject was rather more complex.

How would you illustrate the packaging of a hypoallergenic cement?
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using language

I hadn’t realised that the library in Navarredonda was following a long and honourable Spanish tradition with their sign listing their rules and regulations for behaviour.

Still, the tile in the photograph was spotted embedded in the wall outside a bar in Pedro Bernardo and does seem to be a genuine antique.

Presumably, though, the residents don’t want visitors to think that they are quite so stuck in the past as a ban on blasphemy and the image of a pony parked in the bull ring might lead you to believe. At least, I assume that’s why they felt the need to add the small explanatory tile that reads, “curiosidad antigua”.
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local transport

One thing that never ceases to amaze me about Spain is how easy it is to find scenes of traditional village life.

I’m not talking about travelling to the more remote provinces such as León, where, according to today’s El Mundo, there are 23 municipalities with fewer than 200 registered residents.
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