Tag: Spanish

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When You Hope for Flutes, You Get Whistles

A quick mistranslation here from the astonishing Golden Age Spanish writer Luis de Góngora y Argote. This is not especially typical of his work, as I understand it, which ranged across many genres and was wildly influential in his day and arguably to the present day. I hope to return to add a bit more about my thoughts on de Góngora later when I have the time.

Meanwhile, I present here my mistranslation of one of his most popular lyric poems, an indisputably true piece of profundity and clarity that is probably best known in English via this spectacular version recorded by Dead Can Dance. You can listen to their version here, and then decide how badly my mistranslation compares.

When You Hope for Flutes, You Get Whistles

Fortune grants us things
according to no rules.
When you ask for whistles you get flutes.
When you ask for flutes, you get whistles.

Honours and wealth walk habitually
down many strange pathways.
To some Fortune gives great presents,
but to others she grants robes of shame.
When you hope for whistles, you get flutes.
When you hope for flutes, you get whistles.

Sometimes she steals the hut and plough
from the finest goatherd,
and for whichever one she fancies
the lamest goat will bear two kids.
When you foresee whistles, it’s flutes.
When you foresee flutes, it’s whistles.

Because a young guy in a village
who takes only one egg
will swing in the sun for it
while another walks past freely
bearing a hundred thousand crimes.
When it should be whistles, it’s flutes.
When it should be flutes, it’s whistles.

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Think in 5-D: Learn a Language

There are around 140 language families on the planet. Nearly half of all people speak a language from only one of those families as their native tongue, never mind all those who speak them as second or subsequent languages.

That family is Indo-European, and it includes English, Spanish, Hindi, Russian and some other very big hitters in terms of global speakers.

As the world continues to globalise, we will inevitably lose languages and even entire language families. Some projections suggest we might be down to only five or six major languages by 2500. Of those, only probably Arabic and Chinese stand a chance of being non-Indo-European languages spoken by anyone.

Once upon a time, I scoffed at learning my national language, Irish. What’s the use? Who gives a shit about old myths? Anyhow, it was all tied up with politics and my limited brain could only just about accommodate French.

Now I regret that decision, like I regret not maintaining my knowledge of Attican Greek and Latin, not properly learning Italian, Russian or Turkish, and being so scared by Hebrew and Arabic that I gave up on day one.

Because languages aren’t just interchangeable modes of communication. Each one expresses an entire culture, and even more, a wholly unique way of conceiving of the world. To speak more than one language is to see the world in multiple dimensions at once.

I envy my five year old his bilingualism. It’s a gift I intend to jealously defend for him, and no doubt on occasion even against his future wishes.

If you want to save culture and add literal dimensions to your brain, learn a language. Start today.