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  3. Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting

Fora justamente esse clamor

English translation: It was the very outcry

16:24 Jan 11, 2012
Portuguese to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / Presentation for an art exhibition
Portuguese term or phrase: Fora justamente esse clamor
Hi everyone,

I am translating quite an abstract text which is to be used as a presentation for an art exhibition on Rodrigo Zeferino. I'm finding it quite difficult to translate in general, but this particular phrase is giving me bother, as is the sentence it is in as a whole. I would welcome any suggestions on how to make this work in English. Thanks for your help!

"Abrir picada, caminho, estrada. É preciso ir em frente. É preciso? Na obstinação de ampliar sua fatia de território, o homem rasga, edifica, molda a paisagem. No trânsito entre o ter sido e o vir a ser da paisagem, acumulam-se vestígios, restam restos. Grandes monumentos construídos em honra ao absolutamente nada...

...Essa paisagem-estorvo, em formato de barrancos abandonados, parece clamar por uma significação, um novo sentido que a livre da descomunal aparência que a atitude grotesca da engenharia civil lhe impôs. Essa inútil paisagem antiestética, extirpada de sua origem para ser desvelada crua e cruelmente, não se dá à contemplação do belo, não possui função social, mas nem por isso silencia e tampouco sua escala a deixa passar despercebida.

***Fora justamente esse clamor***, esse sussurro emitido pelos grotões com suas cicatrizes expostas, que servira de detonador do processo criativo do artista Rodrigo Zeferino. O paradoxo da paisagem, transformada num estrondoso monumento ao absolutamente nada, é o ponto de partida para que o artista perceba esse circuito de significação interrompido e o leve adiante esgarçando, por sua vez, os limites da linguagem fotográfica para que, enfim, a paisagem encontre uma representação que lhe afirme um lugar no mundo."
Lindsay Spratt
France
Local time: 14:15
English translation:It was the very outcry
Explanation:
"Fora" does not mean apart in this context, rather "it was".
Selected response from:

Edward Nelson
Grading comment
Thanks, Edward!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +3It was precisely this cry
Sheryle Oliver
4 +3It had been precisely this cry
Ivan Rocha, CT
4It was the very outcry
Edward Nelson
4it was exactly this cacophony (clamour)
Nick Taylor
4 -1right apart from this cry
Guilherme Kikuchi


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


56 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
right apart from this cry


Explanation:
.

Guilherme Kikuchi
Brazil
Local time: 09:15
Does not meet criteria
Native speaker of: Native in PortuguesePortuguese

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Mark Robertson: Fora - pluperfect of the verb ser.
17 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
It had been precisely this cry


Explanation:
Fora, aqui, não é "aside", mas o verbo "ser", conjugado no pretérito mais-que-perfeito.

Ivan Rocha, CT
Canada
Does not meet criteria
Native speaker of: Native in PortuguesePortuguese
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Georgia Morg (X)
15 mins
  -> Grato, Georgia.
agree  Andre Damasceno
1 hr
  -> Grato, Andre.
agree  Daniel Tavares
1 hr
  -> Grato, Daniel.
agree  Guilherme Kikuchi
7 hrs
  -> Grato, Guilherme.
disagree  Sheryle Oliver: Grammar is grammar and sense is sense = context= WAS
10 hrs
  -> I agree that translators have a wiggle room with tenses, but I do believe that preserving the pluperfect is the best choice in this case.
neutral  Muriel Vasconcellos: I don't agree with your analysis. See the note I posted in the Discussion.
10 hrs
  -> Thanks for your input, Muriel.
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
It was the very outcry


Explanation:
"Fora" does not mean apart in this context, rather "it was".

Edward Nelson
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thanks, Edward!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Ivan Rocha, CT: Em verdade, o verbo não está no passado simples ("era"), mas no pretérito mais-que-perfeito ("fora"). Sua sugestão será válida se a colega não quiser preservar, no inglês, o tempo verbal original.
6 mins
  -> Good observation,but one I chose to overlook because, in general, the use of the past perfect tense is used when one completed action takes place before another, which isn't the case here - hence the tense change, therefore conferring the same sense.
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +3
It was precisely this cry


Explanation:
1) The simple past - WAS - is required because of the overall context.

2) To capture the feeling of the passage, a bit of literary license may be required.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2012-01-12 04:10:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Think in English! Imagine you are writing the text, selling the artist.

Example sentence(s):
  • It was precisely this cry, this whispering scream from the hollows and their naked scars, that liberated the creative urge/process of artist Rodrigo Zeferino.
Sheryle Oliver
Brazil
Local time: 09:15
Meets criteria
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Muriel Vasconcellos: Yes. I once heard a whole lecture on non-literal uses of tenses in Portuguese.
8 hrs
  -> ... and when I was studying in California, my teachers always said, "Just tell it the way it is or tell it the way it happened." Right or wrong, language teaching is very different in the US, far less grammar, much more usage.t
agree  Mark Robertson
14 hrs
agree  Ulrica d'Orey
18 hrs
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1 day 45 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
it was exactly this cacophony (clamour)


Explanation:
it was exactly this cacophony (clamour)

Nick Taylor
Local time: 13:15
Meets criteria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 91
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