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Sun 2 Oct, 2005 06:00 pm
Hi everyone,
Recently I've been listening to music in foreign languages--this month it's been Portuguese. I can translate most of it, but I'm having trouble with the following lines:
Não vale a pena tentar: The bus boy I work with speaks Spanish; he told me that pena means something roughly like an uncomfortable feeling, and that tentar is to touch someone in a certain way. Of course, Portuguese is not identical to Spanish. And I don't know what vale means.
É como não sentir saudade
Em tudo aquilo que ficou
Something about feeling homesick?
Deus cuida de mim na sombra das suas asas
This means, "God takes care of me in the shade of its (his?) wings"? That's what Babelfish gave me, and I didn't think it made sense. But after reading The Confessions last night, I came across, "O Lord our God, let us hope beneath the shadow of your wings (Ps. 17.8, Ps. 36.7, Ps 57.1...)." So it appears to be a Biblical allusion.
Any help is appreciated.
Não vale a pena tentar
It isn't worth trying
Não vale a pena is a figure of speech.
The Spanish equivalent is
No vale la pena
É como não sentir saudade
Em tudo aquilo que ficou
It's like not feeling happiness
In all that remains.
Deus cuida de mim na sombra das suas asas
God cares for me beneath the shadow of his wings.
I found a pretty good Portuguese dictionary that will define conjugated verbs. Not too many online dictionaries will do that.
http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/dlpo.aspx
Welcome to A2K, Kristoffer!
Thanks for translation, InfraBlue!
And thanks for the handy translating site, too. This is a really great forum; I'll have to recommend it to more people.
Re: Translating Portuguese lyrics to English: Não vale a pen
Kristoffer wrote:Não vale a pena tentar: The bus boy I work with speaks Spanish; he told me that pena means something roughly like an uncomfortable feeling, and that tentar is to touch someone in a certain way. Of course, Portuguese is not identical to Spanish. And I don't know what vale means.
pena in this context means "penalty".
Quote:
É como não sentir saudade
Em tudo aquilo que ficou
Something about feeling homesick?
Yes, "saudade" means "homesickness" in this context.
"It's like not feeling homesick for all that remained (was left behind)."
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