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cumplieron estos propósitos al pie de la letra.
la acostaban en una cama de paja,

Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

un gran terrón de oro

English translation:

a big lump of gold

Added to glossary by Cecilia Gowar
Oct 2, 2021 08:20
3 yrs ago
19 viewers *
Spanish term

un gran terrón del oro

Non-PRO Spanish to English Other Poetry & Literature Literature.
I would like to know the best translation of this phrase from Latin American Spanish into American English. Translator colleagues from Spain, feel free to send me your suggestions as well. Is okay to translate it as" a big gold clod?

This is from the story about The hen that laid the golden eggs of Aesop and Félix María de Samaniego

Here is the full paragraph:

y su esposa tenían una gallina que ponía un huevo de oro cada día. Supusieron que la gallina debería contener un gran terrón del oro en su interior, y para tratar de conseguirlo de una sola vez, la mataron.
Proposed translations (English)
4 a big lump of gold
4 great lump of gold
3 A large gold nugget
2 a huge chunk
Change log

Oct 2, 2021 10:40: Beatriz Ramírez de Haro changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"

Oct 21, 2021 08:12: Cecilia Gowar Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (3): Toni Castano, Adrian MM., Beatriz Ramírez de Haro

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Discussion

yugoslavia (asker) Oct 4, 2021:
Thanks Toni. Hi Toni,
I have just got your message. Thanks for your understanding. Yes ,I completely understand. I posted the next three questions related to the story in The Non-Pro Kudoz Section of Kudoz. I will prefer different opinions of professional translators but I got some answers from professional translators in that section too. Thanks again and I hope that you are safe from The Covid19 Virus.

Sincerely,

Yugoslavia
Toni Castano Oct 3, 2021:
Yugoslavia Thank you for your update. Don´t worry about the delay. These things happen, don´t they?
I´m sure you have no prejudices whatsoever regarding the different variants of Spanish, sure (as I tried to explain before, only a "donkey" would have them). The real point at issue here is actually the qualification of your questions as PRO, which may seem something subjective in some cases to some extent, but in my view it is a very clear case of NON-PRO queries, I mean, questions that non-professional translators could answer even without resorting to a bilingual dictionary.
As for me, being really tired of your lovely hen of the golden eggs, I think I shall enjoy a rest from all this stuff now. Regards to you and the very best of luck until completion of your strenuous project.
yugoslavia (asker) Oct 2, 2021:
Apologies for the delay. Hi Cecilia and Toni, I have just got your messages. I was not connected to Proz. I'm sorry about the delay in responding.  I went to sleep late doing a project. and we have around 7 hours of time difference with Spain and England.

 Thanks for letting me know.  I appreciate your help and suggestions. I don't have those wrong thoughts or prejudist ideas. I'm also a Spanish interpreter living in the USA and I work with many Latin American Colleagues during important events. I have dictionaries and books in my home published in Spain and also in Latin America. I watch movies in European and Latin American Spanish. I appreciate European and Latin American Spanish equally. I only wanted suggestions from different Spanish translators. Toni, don't worry, I will try to post some of the questions as Non-pro. I had a migraine headache but I will connect later. Yugoslavia
Toni Castano Oct 2, 2021:
Cecilia I shall put it short: Those people who believe such nonsense should not worry you at all, and you should not spend any minute arguing with them, because, as you probably know, "los burros nunca saben por qué llevan alforjas" (sorry, I don´t know this in English, maybe I should post a KudoZ :-).
Cecilia Gowar Oct 2, 2021:
Apologies for my oversight. I now realise the original text is supposed to be ¨Latin American Spanish¨ and that is why Yugoslavia includes translators from Spain.
Toni, I am not the one suggesting there is one version of a language –any language-- better than the other. Unfortunately some people, particularly non native speakers, tend to believe the Spanish spoken in Latin America is different from that spoken in Spain and ¨less pure¨.
There is not enough room here to discuss this simplification but it is wrong. There are only a couple of consistent differences between the two, which do not affect the meaning, and many regional variations, even within Spain.
And in every case you can have properly or badly written or spoken Spanish.
Toni Castano Oct 2, 2021:
So thanks to all of you Sorry, the final "thanks" couldn´t be posted in my previous message, no space for it.
Toni Castano Oct 2, 2021:
Dear Cecilia It´s important what you say. Let me clarify that meanwhile I firmly believe this series of posts by Yugoslavia is not only affecting your brain, but mine too. It would just be much easier to post all these queries directly as NON-PRO, for the benefit of the whole community (= our brain health, I mean). Yugoslavia, please don´t take it personally, but you should really consider posting all this stuff as NON-PRO, which just corresponds to the very real nature of your queries.
As for your second comment, Cecilia, I can only express my personal opinion. There is no such thing like a better or worse Spanish. We all share an extraordinary linguistic treasure called Spanish, which belongs to all of us. I constantly learn from you, Cecilia, and from many other Latin American colleagues present and active in this forum, and I consider their different variants of Spanish as a form or enrichment of my own Spanish (and my person too!). In this sense, I am grateful to ProZ and all of you for making this forum possible.
Yugoslavia, your are perfectly entitled to post as many queries as you wish, but please think of doing it in the form of NON-PRO stuff (for the benefit of our health).
yugoslavia (asker) Oct 2, 2021:
Cecilia, remember that I said" translators from Spain, feel free to send me your suggestions"" I'm accepting comments from both Spanish speakers.
yugoslavia (asker) Oct 2, 2021:
Cecilia, please don't take it the wrong way. The Spanish text of the hen of golden eggs was written by a writer of Northern South America. The client preferred a Spanish translator of Latin America. We never said that translators from Spain were better or something like that.
I said only to feel free to send us their suggestions. Yugoslavia
Domini Lucas Oct 2, 2021:
del oro Even if the text is badly written, could this not be referring to the fact that, knowing that the hen lays golden eggs, they assumed that she must have a 'big lump/mass of that gold' inside her i.e. that's where the eggs were coming from rather than appearing magically every day. I see sense in that rendering.
Cecilia Gowar Oct 2, 2021:
@Toni Funnily I only realised it said ¨del¨when I read your post.... my brain must have corrected it because I thought it read ¨de oro¨.
Of course I agree with your comments. I have mentioned before the text is badly written.
Another thing that baffles me is that the poster seems to believe Spanish speakers from Spain speak a different or better Spanish than the rest of us.
Would you mind clarifying that Yugoslavia? Why do you think you can only accept comments in Spanish from Spain?
Domini Lucas Oct 2, 2021:
re mass vets use it too. Our dog recently had an unspecified mass leading to various investigations. Of course, vets don't fit with literary, but just clarifying that it does come up as referring to an unspecified internal lump.
yugoslavia (asker) Oct 2, 2021:
The writer of the Spanish learning course wrote the Spanish term" terrón del oro.
Maybe he was meaning that.
Domini Lucas Oct 2, 2021:
mass? Just wondering about mass as an option as it is something that could be found internally...
yugoslavia (asker) Oct 2, 2021:
Thanks. Toni, this was not written by us, they gave us this Spanish story from a Spanish learning course. I think this was written by the Spanish course writer.
Toni Castano Oct 2, 2021:
Yugoslavia Be VERY careful with your very badly written source text. I don´t know who´s responsible for such "gem", but it doesn´t sound like written by a native.
yugoslavia (asker) Oct 2, 2021:
Thanks Toni. Hi Toni,

Thanks.
I noticed that as well. It was written like that in that Spanish article.
Toni Castano Oct 2, 2021:
A "terrón del oro"? "Terrón de oro" (no article, just the preposition "de") is comprehensible for everybody, but a "terrón del oro" is just nonsensical Spanish.

Proposed translations

10 mins
Selected

a big lump of gold

Simple as that.
Note from asker:
Muchas gracias Cecilia.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks a lot."
7 mins

great lump of gold

.
Note from asker:
Thanks Emiliano. I found lump as well but I was not sure if this was the correct one.
Something went wrong...
3 hrs

a huge chunk

Chunk is often expressed as hyperbole to dramatize the unexpected, larger size of something.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2021-10-02 12:17:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

A huge chunk of gold.
Note from asker:
Thanks Orkoyen.
Something went wrong...
20 mins

A large gold nugget

As in....
The largest gold nugget ever discovered, the single biggest gold specimen ever found is the Holtermann. Dug up ..

.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 7 hrs (2021-10-02 15:46:05 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I'd say understandable across the board
Note from asker:
Thanks Ormiston. Is this suggestion for British English or American? Please let me know.
Thanks for the explanation Ormiston.
Something went wrong...
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