Kneeling down onto our knees

14:17 May 29, 2010 

Es obvio que el texto original es redundante, y también que lo es porque el autor quiso que lo fuera, por énfasis u otro motivo. Claramente la decisión de reproducir o no esa redundancia dependerá de la estructura que Beta dé al poema al traducirlo, lo cual también depende de asuntos estructurales tales como ritmo y rima, de las demás palabras utilizadas, y de otros aspectos que desconocemos.

14:12 May 29, 2010 

;-)

13:56 May 29, 2010 

Otra opción sería: rongándo de rodillas

13:38 May 29, 2010 

arrodillarse en algo que no sean las rodillas? Naturalmente es una redundancia tanto en inglés como en castellano por lo que debe ser una licencia poética del autor.

02:05 May 29, 2010 

returns for "kneeling down onto our knees" ... in other words, the expression is as redundant in English as "arrodillarse de rodillas" is in Spanish.

01:52 May 29, 2010 

As a native Spanish speaker "arrodillarse de rodillas" is extremely redundant. Is the same thing as "preguntar una pregunta" o "responder una respuesta".
That is why I proposed "hincarse de rodillas" which convey the meaning and, by the way, I associate with religious, spiritual contexts.
Have an awesome weekend :)

01:44 May 29, 2010 

very graphic, isn't it! - well, presumably the metaphor is of one a person who kneels down (in a gesture of submission) in order to scavenge food or other useful items due to extreme poverty... the picture is one of the "humiliation" of people who were once rich and had servants to prepare their meals (going by your other question http://www.proz.com/kudoz/english_to_spanish/poetry_literatu... )

The text (because of the emphasis "kneeling-knees") also gives the impression that these people are not only on their knees, but are bent over (forward) searching for the food, in a posture of even greater submission.

The literal translation would be "arrodillándonos de rodillas"; I don't know if that sounds usable to you?

01:26 May 29, 2010 

Deborah,
There goes the full verse:
"We earned the wage of our sins

Kneeling down onto our knees

By garbage cans in alleys

Like whores from Third World countries...."

01:05 May 29, 2010 

it would be very helpful if you could quote the full sentence so we could understand why the author uses both the verb "kneel down" and the noun "knees"... it seems it is in order to emphasize something, but the surrounding context would make it clear what, and why. Kind regards.