Alumbrado

[John]

I was reading Oda a Francisco Salinas earlier, and…

El aire se serena viste de hermosura y luz no usada…                                                                              

which is beautiful in itself, but was translated in the same text as:

the air becomes serene

and clothed in strange beauty and radiance.

My question is: was that translated correctly? The air becomes serene makes sense, but the light passage escapes me grammatically. </p>

[Language Tutors]

It is very poetic 🙂

Well especially being a poem it’s not  usually possible to do a direct translation and to be able to capture what the writer  meant exactly, but by sticking as close as possible to the original words I’d translate it like … The air becomes serene  and clothes itself in beauty and residual light.  I’m not sure how the translator above came up with ‘strange’ but maybe he was using a big dollop of poetic license.

I checked my translation with a native speaker and he agreed but said that it could also mean  unused, never used or untouched light.

I hope that helps somewhat.

[John]

Como siempre, gracias.

[Language Tutors]

De nada, gracias por participar en el foro. 🙂

[Author]

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