Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Portuguese term or phrase:
Ou não fosse este o livro onde o coração, terna e sabiamente, segreda
English translation:
Otherwise this would not be the book in which the heart, tenderly and wisely, confides.
- The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2010-05-02 14:54:08 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Apr 29, 2010 08:57
14 yrs ago
2 viewers *
Portuguese term
Portugal
Native in: Portuguese 
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English, Spanish to Portuguese, and 3 more.
Ou não fosse este o livro onde o coração, terna e sabiamente, segreda
Portuguese to English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Frase pertencente a descrição de uma obra
A dúvida é na expressão "Ou não fosse"
Proposed translations
+3
14 mins
Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira
Brazil
Brazil
Native in Portuguese
Works in field
Brazil
Passionate, reliable
Native in: Portuguese 
Works in: English to Portuguese, German to Portuguese, Dutch to Portuguese, and 8 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
80
Selected
Otherwise this would not be the book in which the heart, tenderly and wisely, confides.
Infezlimente perdeu muito da literariedade.
Note from asker:
| Boa opção. Infelizmente como referiu perde algum do estilo poético e literário. Obrigado pelo contributo. |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Donald Scott Alexander
: Based on the additional context now provided, I feel your translation better captures the meaning. To capture the poetic tone as well, perhaps you could just change "otherwise" to "else", and change "would be" to "were". Please see my Discussion Entry.
7 mins
|
| agree |
Henrique Magalhaes
28 mins
|
| agree |
Amy Duncan (X)
4 hrs
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+2
13 mins
Donald Scott Alexander
Native in English
Fast, Professional and Accurate!
Native in: English (Variants: UK, US)
Works in: Spanish to English, Portuguese to English, German to English, and 1 more.
Portuguese term (edited):
ou não fosse este (o livro onde o coração, terna e sabiamente)
or were this not (the book where the heart, tenderly and wisely)
Both the source term "não fosse este" and my suggested target term "were this not" involve inversion of normal (declarative) subject-verb order, instead putting the verb first ("fosse" / "were") and the subject second ("este" / "this").
This inverted order, as we know, is sometimes used to to express the (implicit) word "if" ("se" in Portuguese).
So in both languages you've got an implicit "if" expressed by inverting the normal subject-verb order resulting in verb-subject order, and the verb is in the subjunctive mood. This is a nice, poetic style.
Examples:
"Or, were this not found sufficient, could not the deficiency be made up by requisitions to the states?"
http://www.thisnation.com/library/antifederalist/30-31.html
(meaning: "if this were not found sufficient...")
"either to place her in a junior professional post or were this not feasible in a general service post so that she could at least look forward to the ..."
http://untreaty.un.org/UNAT/UNAT_Judgements/Judgements_E/UNA...
(meaning: "if this were not feasible...")
"Here now appears a remarkable antinomy of human reason with itself, whose solution, or, were this not possible, at least whose adjustment can alone ..."
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/rbbr/rbbr3.html
(meaning: "if this were not possible...")
"Hello darkness, my old friend - or were this not an Irish pub."
http://lostinlisbon.blogspot.com/2006/10/pub-night.html
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Note added at 16 mins (2010-04-29 09:13:20 GMT)
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(meaning: "or if this were not an Irish pub")
Note that in order to preserve the poetic tone of the original, you should not use "if" in the translation. Leave the inverted verb-subject order, lacking the word "if", to maintain the poetic tone.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 35 mins (2010-04-29 09:32:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Please see vote in favor of Luciano's answer (I think he captured the literal meaning better than I did).
Also please see my Discussion Entry, where I suggest a slight change to Luciano's answer (changing "otherwise" to "else" and changing "would be" to "were"), so that Luciano's excellent literal translation will also preserve the literary, poetic tone of the original as well.
This inverted order, as we know, is sometimes used to to express the (implicit) word "if" ("se" in Portuguese).
So in both languages you've got an implicit "if" expressed by inverting the normal subject-verb order resulting in verb-subject order, and the verb is in the subjunctive mood. This is a nice, poetic style.
Examples:
"Or, were this not found sufficient, could not the deficiency be made up by requisitions to the states?"
http://www.thisnation.com/library/antifederalist/30-31.html
(meaning: "if this were not found sufficient...")
"either to place her in a junior professional post or were this not feasible in a general service post so that she could at least look forward to the ..."
http://untreaty.un.org/UNAT/UNAT_Judgements/Judgements_E/UNA...
(meaning: "if this were not feasible...")
"Here now appears a remarkable antinomy of human reason with itself, whose solution, or, were this not possible, at least whose adjustment can alone ..."
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/rbbr/rbbr3.html
(meaning: "if this were not possible...")
"Hello darkness, my old friend - or were this not an Irish pub."
http://lostinlisbon.blogspot.com/2006/10/pub-night.html
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 mins (2010-04-29 09:13:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
(meaning: "or if this were not an Irish pub")
Note that in order to preserve the poetic tone of the original, you should not use "if" in the translation. Leave the inverted verb-subject order, lacking the word "if", to maintain the poetic tone.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 35 mins (2010-04-29 09:32:28 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Please see vote in favor of Luciano's answer (I think he captured the literal meaning better than I did).
Also please see my Discussion Entry, where I suggest a slight change to Luciano's answer (changing "otherwise" to "else" and changing "would be" to "were"), so that Luciano's excellent literal translation will also preserve the literary, poetic tone of the original as well.
Note from asker:
| Excelente opção. Concordo inteiramente com ela. Obrigado |
2 hrs
Discussion
So to capture the poetic tone as well, you could use "else" instead of "otherwise", and use "were" instead of "would be":
"Else this were not be the book in which the heart, tenderly and wisely, confides."
In older poetic texts, English "were" does indeed sometimes mean "would be". For example:
"Faith is a free assent; else it were not meritorious; it does not require sight, as Christ declared to St. Thomas, "Blessed are they that have not seen and ..."
http://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/sscr16.htm
"... thou art kind, and it is thy kindness that draweth the tears from me; else it were not well to weep before a young man: therefore I pray thee pardon me. ..."
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/morris/wwe/wwe008.htm
"When the sun shines, it shines freely else it were not the sun; and when God forgives, he forgives freely else he were not God. "
http://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/2868.htm