An old junk-shop or an old-junk shop; an old shop that sells curiosities, or a shop that sells old curiosities? One person’s trash is another’s treasure, and I wondered idly whether the Spanish translators hadn’t all got it wrong -perhaps misled by the building’s current, posh aspect- and whether it shouldn’t have been La vieja trapería, or some such. But Dickens:
The place through which he made his way at leisure was one of those receptacles for old and curious things which seem to crouch in odd corners of this town and to hide their musty treasures from the public eye in jealousy and distrust. There were suits of mail standing like ghosts in armour here and there, fantastic carvings brought from monkish cloisters, rusty weapons of various kinds, distorted figures in china and wood and iron and ivory: tapestry and strange furniture that might have been designed in dreams. The haggard aspect of the little old man was wonderfully suited to the place; he might have groped among old churches and tombs and deserted houses and gathered all the spoils with his own hands. There was nothing in the whole collection but was in keeping with himself nothing that looked older or more worn than he.
And:
the store-room of old curiosities
Our maternal, London grandfather had a professional interest in buildings, and once took us on an inspection trip round town, subsidised, to his amused Tory embarrassment, by Reg Goodwin and Evelyn Denington’s free-passes-for-pensioners scheme. I recall thinking that Nell could never have afforded to live there (and the attribution may be spurious).
Similar posts
- The use of phoney billing cooperatives by Spanish freelancers to avoid paying exorbitant autónomo social security contributions
This is not turning into a fucked translators blog, but it is said that freelance translation (or journalism, or such) in - Early Hispanic bad loans and the Berbers: how we got from “el cadi” (the judge) to “el alcalde” (the the mayor)
Were the medieval Spanish arseholes? enquires anti-patriot Jesús P. Zamora Bonilla re the agglutination of the Arabic definite article in Spanish - Cervantes, prototype for el Cobrador del Frac?
Peter Harvey is suffering from that perennial Spanish problem–translation agencies that don’t pay the modest rates they promise. This blog enjoys - The worst translator in the world? “Quoth she, so much I hate this nation, / I’ll damn this author in translation”
The London Magazine, 1734: Verses occasioned by Mr. Budgel’s modest Proposal, in the Daily Post-Boy of Aug. 31. to give the - Sepia to the iron with ali smelt
Via Carlos Ferrero Martín and @ucedaman, another great menu, featuring ears to the iron, sepia to the iron with ali smelt,
Comments