patear la pelota para un costado

12:45 Aug 30, 2014 

Hi Jane:

There are a few references to a case of a youth committing suicide due to discrimination, etc. and the full phrase is **Es patear la pelota a un costado, mirar a otro lado**.

http://stopthepunch.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html
...... “pueblo chico, infierno grande” y creer que en una localidad pequeña, por el solo hecho de ser pequeña va a vivir en el conservadurismo más grande, presa del prejuicio, la intolerancia y dogmas estáticos es una verdad a medias, o sea, una mentira a medias. **Es patear la pelota a un costado, mirar a otro lado**.

http://www.elindependiente.com.ar/papel/hoy/imprimir.asp?id=...

08:11 Aug 30, 2014 

Hi Jane. This is not a translation proposal, but just a comment on the expression. It immediately made me think of the British English expression "kick the ball into touch", which refers to when you kick the ball out of play, over the touch (side) line. This is done when you're under pressure, to give you time to reorganise. It's a common set phrase as a metaphor. You can omit "ball" and just talk about "kicking an issue into touch", meaning to evade it:

"kick something into touch
British
to stop discussing an idea, suggestion, problem etc because it is clear that you cannot achieve or solve it"
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/kick

If it were for a British audience this might work well, but American readers probably wouldn't understand it.

The origin is much more rugby than football, but then rugby is very big in Argentina (in fact the national team is world class). In soccer people rarely kick the ball into touch deliberately, but in rugby it happens all the time and can gain you an advantage if you do it right in certain circumstances (I'll spare you a detailed explanation!).

06:00 Aug 30, 2014 

Yes, it is kind of a soccer football reference: when you kick the ball to a side it's because you don't dare to try to go forward and make a goal; either you leave the responsibility to someone else, or to nobody, but you certainly don't take it. But it's just in a figurative way, not that any football player would do that :).

05:48 Aug 30, 2014 

I was thinking of him as being "tough" because he chose to bear his pain rather than cause pain to another. But perhaps he was just choosing the easy way. Is "patear la pelota" a soccer (futbol) reference? I don't understand the point of kicking it "para un costado."

05:42 Aug 30, 2014 

I misunderstood you mainly because of this definition.

tough it out
to be strong while experiencing difficulties Should we tough it out, or should we close the store and go out of business now?
See also: out, tough
Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003. Reproduced with permission.

05:36 Aug 30, 2014 

I meant that he decided that even though he wanted to ask questions, he would let it go, "biting the bullet" rather than doing what he longed to do. Thank you, this comment is helpful.

04:38 Aug 30, 2014 

No, patear la pelota para un costado es exactamente lo opuesto. Es decidir no encarar algo, dejar pasar algo, 'quitarle el cuerpo a las balas', no hacerse reponsable de algo. Entonces, lo que aqui quiere decir es que decidió no preguntar nada, sacarse la idea de la cabeza y seguir adelante como si nada hubiera ocurrido.