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  3. Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting

te tocan vivir estos tránsitos

English translation: those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:te tocan vivir estos tránsitos
English translation:those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks
Entered by: teju

17:25 Apr 13, 2013
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / Photography exhibit - art
Spanish term or phrase: te tocan vivir estos tránsitos
This is from an essay written by an artist about his paintings, part of an exhibit. He talks about the current situation in the Mexico-US border. I'm not sure what the author means here with "tránsitos". I had never heard before of a "violence bottleneck" either. If tránsitos here means violence, what's the best way to translate this phrase? Context:

Somos geográficamente uno de los cuellos de botella de tránsito de la violencia generada por el narcotráfico “la guerra inútil”, especialmente las fronteras, en mi caso Reynosa. Te tocan vivir estos tránsitos más continuos y más fuertes la sociedad tiende a insensibilizarse, el discurso es para que no se nos olvide que, a mi manera de ver, no es correcto, que violencia genera más violencia y que es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas.
teju
Local time: 00:36
those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks
Explanation:
It looks like something is missing in the Spanish in both the first and second sentences here.

Suerte.

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Note added at 35 mins (2013-04-13 18:01:40 GMT)
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My suggested way our of this morrass:

Begin a new sentence with "discurso," which reads as follows:

The idea here is that we should not forget that violence only leads to more vivolence, and that we should be committed to books rather than bullets.

***

I definitely see the problem here, but it simply doesn’t make sense that he would be rejecting rather than affirming the thesis (i.e., “discurso”) that he is stating here. Thus, what "no es correcto" is the *reality* that "violence leads to more violence" and not the affirmation that this is what indeed occurs. I therefore see the confusion as resulting from poor writing (or perhaps transcribed unedited riffing) on the part of the inarticulate artist….

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Note added at 1 hr (2013-04-13 18:26:14 GMT)
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Spelling correction: "morass"

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Note added at 1 hr (2013-04-13 19:03:55 GMT)
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Or, for "...que es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas":

"that we should be filling minds with knowledge rather than gun cartridges of guns with bullets."
OR
"that we should eschew guns in favor of education."
Selected response from:

Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 02:36
Grading comment
Thank you very much Robert, it was very helpful.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks
Robert Forstag


Discussion entries: 8





  

Answers


14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Te tocan vivir estos tránsitos más continuos y más fuertes
those who live here must endure the constant and serious outbreaks


Explanation:
It looks like something is missing in the Spanish in both the first and second sentences here.

Suerte.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 35 mins (2013-04-13 18:01:40 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

My suggested way our of this morrass:

Begin a new sentence with "discurso," which reads as follows:

The idea here is that we should not forget that violence only leads to more vivolence, and that we should be committed to books rather than bullets.

***

I definitely see the problem here, but it simply doesn’t make sense that he would be rejecting rather than affirming the thesis (i.e., “discurso”) that he is stating here. Thus, what "no es correcto" is the *reality* that "violence leads to more violence" and not the affirmation that this is what indeed occurs. I therefore see the confusion as resulting from poor writing (or perhaps transcribed unedited riffing) on the part of the inarticulate artist….

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2013-04-13 18:26:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Spelling correction: "morass"

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2013-04-13 19:03:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or, for "...que es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas":

"that we should be filling minds with knowledge rather than gun cartridges of guns with bullets."
OR
"that we should eschew guns in favor of education."

Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 02:36
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 134
Grading comment
Thank you very much Robert, it was very helpful.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Ah, yes indeed! I'm translating artist statements for an exhibit and not everyone knows how to write. You have no idea how bad some of these essays are. I would need the Rosetta Stone to decipher what they mean. Thank you for your input.

Asker: Your opinion, please Robert. Above, when they mention "el discurso" are they referring to the last sentence "es preferible apostarle a la educación que a las balas"? I don't understand why he would say that he's against that? Am I reading it wrong?

Asker: I had to step away from my computer to get something to eat. Thank you for all your suggestions. I agree with your reasoning, he couldn't possibly be saying he's against education and for bullets, but that's what it says. I need to edit the original. What's sad is that this isn't the poorest written text of all, by far, this is one of the "good ones". As far as the last line, that is a famous quote from a speech someone made, it's fairly well-known in this border area, so I cannot do much tweaking with it. Thank you so much for any suggestions!

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