This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Italian to English translations [Non-PRO] Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / In A Book On The History Of Geographical Explorations/Discoveries
Italian term or phrase:ridussero la baldanzosa armata a un branco di disperati
Contesto (Spanish expedition, in 1541, in the Amazon Forest):
El clima caldo e umidissimo, l'intrico della vegetazione, serpenti, ridussero in pochi giorni la baldananza armata a un branco di disperati.
Possibly it is splitting hairs. Both would be understood, but I am commenting on nuance, for which the Asker will know the best fit seeing as she has more context.
@ Lara I am not native in English so this is probably something I don't grasp; I would separate the concepts but it's splitting hair // sorry, hairs ! :)
Your spelling was incorrect, which is why I posted the dictionary link. For groups of people we do not put an "a" in the word. "Hoard" (with an "a") normally means to stock up on things or to build up a collection of items when you may not need them.
In English it sounds a little less clumsy to use "defenceless" with the verb "reduced to" to me. If we said "reduced them to a "despairing" flock"" I find it a bit odd, because to be "reduced" to means that some of your assets or defences or whatever have got lost or been taken away some how. In the case of the army, this would obviously be their defenses against all dangers that are out there for them.
Your option as well as Lara's one sound good to me but consider I'm not a native English speaker I won't therefore give any agree here.
However, I remarked you used the word "hoard", shouldn't it be "hoarde or hoardes"??? Thanks a lot for your reply. (P.S.: I saw a discussion on wordreference.com about "hoard" and I always saw, by way of example, "Barbarian hoardes", the term hoard seems to have a different meaning, am I correct or wrong?). Waiting to hear from you and thank you again. Grace
they were defenceless in the "hands" of snakes, unfriendly meteo (?) the wilderness.... - this is the cause - and as a result, they were despairing- well at least that's how I see it. I wasn't there.
@Lara Barnett mi piace la soluzione, non metto agree perché penso che defenceless non possa rendere l'idea della vera disperazione data dalla situazione
Hi Barbara, in the future, would you mind stating what your issue is with the sentence, e.g. whether you don't fully understand the source or a certain word or whether you get it completely but are struggling with finding a good solution in English. I think it would helps us provide more helpful answers.
@José, sorry, you don't seem to be particularly fluent either in Italian nor in English, why do you bother replying? What you are doing is very close to trolling.
