desecha y rota como ella

10:30 Jul 17, 2015 

The book sounds great from all the questions you are posting Barbara. ;)

10:22 Jul 17, 2015 

It wasn't personal, Muriel, I'm certain you're not in the least bit a slave to Google. I just thought it was worth pointing out that a common collocation can sometimes have a normalising effect. It goes to show that two translators who both consider themselves to have a keen ear can interpret an author's intentions quite differently, particularly in literature. My keen ear tells me that this author's choice of words is intentionally uncommon.

10:17 Jul 17, 2015 

I'm not a slave to Google. I've done a lot of creative writing myself. I have a very keen ear, and my Ph.D. concentration was features of discourse. I'm just sayin', for a *variety* of reasons, the best collocation for this context is 'tattered and worn'.

10:05 Jul 17, 2015 

OK, but, and especially in the case of literature, you have to ask yourself whether the author wants an especially common collocation. In this case, I don't think she does. The danger is that by being slaves to Google, we normalise texts that have a distinctive voice. So "common" is not always "best" (though I agree, very often it is)

10:01 Jul 17, 2015 

'Tattered and worn' is a common collocation. It a very natural thing to say. No one posted that exact combination, which is the one most widely used. I would have posted it myself, but each of you used one word but not the other, and neither of your combinations sounds quite "right" to me.

07:01 Jul 17, 2015 

Hi, Muriel. What exactly do you mean? Why is "tattered and worn" "the best combination"?

23:44 Jul 16, 2015 

Gracias.

22:04 Jul 16, 2015 

This is a common collocation (56,900 hits), and I think it fits very well here. Too bad no one posted the best combination of adjectives.

12:18 Jul 16, 2015 

I don't think "desecha" can be from "desechar", because then it would have to be "desechada" (desecho is not an adjective). So my guess is the author meant "deshecha" (from deshacer) = worn / ruined etc.