La revancha
Revancha, mistakenly in my mind revenge, for years, or days, which is all the same in malleable narrative.
Leo would cockily hold up the last card, and I would slice through him with 7 de espadas.
"Quiero la revancha"
"Dale"
Y dale y duro and on and on... and I realized that I am much more keenly aware of linguistic particularities in a language setting that is not my own.
"Cámara, güey," as the raztecas, slap hand, touch fists, and bring their hands up to their heart in a brotherly peace-out.
What do people in my country say? How could I possibly know this? Am I stuck in the 90's too? Oh, god, I am, I am, how could this happen? Well? I abandoned my own language more or less in 1995, with only brief forays into it between then and the year 2004 when I met my match, for the eternal revancha, not revenge, just another lob back across the metaphorical net, the ball can always be thrown back to some one else's cancha.
I must observe keenly, English speakers, speaking English. This sounds like such a simple task but proposes to be harder than all that. No truco, no real envido... no "se le botó la canica cañón" all these mysterious constructions I could translate with footnotes on cultural context (the last, my favorite musing of late: the marble popped itself out to him/her, canyon/cannon = se volvió loco cabrón (it is indeed an adverbial expression this noun-cannon, not saying someone is an ass, or a cabrón, nor the proverbial chivo expiatorio, but rather, cabronamente... pesadamente, muy mal...)
Now for interpretation of the slang used by people who are as likely to share their secrets with me as they are their mothers? I can slip on the mask, the guise, the short skirts and see-through tops of the undergrads, but what will it do? Can I actually fool anyone? Maybe if I smile, giggle and act dumb. I do listen in on cell-phone conversations, but still, I am unable to eek out the unique trends. I am not quite strange enough to notice such conglomerations of usage. But it dawns on me, as I am packing my bags and my work for vacation, that I have to transcribe an interview that I recently conducted, and what I really want, (and now that I got my refund check I can have) is a very large capacity ipod and parabolic microphone so that I can surreptitiously record such conversations and then collectively process data. There is a thought. There is always that, the revancha. The rematch. Once again.
Leo would cockily hold up the last card, and I would slice through him with 7 de espadas.
"Quiero la revancha"
"Dale"
Y dale y duro and on and on... and I realized that I am much more keenly aware of linguistic particularities in a language setting that is not my own.
"Cámara, güey," as the raztecas, slap hand, touch fists, and bring their hands up to their heart in a brotherly peace-out.
What do people in my country say? How could I possibly know this? Am I stuck in the 90's too? Oh, god, I am, I am, how could this happen? Well? I abandoned my own language more or less in 1995, with only brief forays into it between then and the year 2004 when I met my match, for the eternal revancha, not revenge, just another lob back across the metaphorical net, the ball can always be thrown back to some one else's cancha.
I must observe keenly, English speakers, speaking English. This sounds like such a simple task but proposes to be harder than all that. No truco, no real envido... no "se le botó la canica cañón" all these mysterious constructions I could translate with footnotes on cultural context (the last, my favorite musing of late: the marble popped itself out to him/her, canyon/cannon = se volvió loco cabrón (it is indeed an adverbial expression this noun-cannon, not saying someone is an ass, or a cabrón, nor the proverbial chivo expiatorio, but rather, cabronamente... pesadamente, muy mal...)
Now for interpretation of the slang used by people who are as likely to share their secrets with me as they are their mothers? I can slip on the mask, the guise, the short skirts and see-through tops of the undergrads, but what will it do? Can I actually fool anyone? Maybe if I smile, giggle and act dumb. I do listen in on cell-phone conversations, but still, I am unable to eek out the unique trends. I am not quite strange enough to notice such conglomerations of usage. But it dawns on me, as I am packing my bags and my work for vacation, that I have to transcribe an interview that I recently conducted, and what I really want, (and now that I got my refund check I can have) is a very large capacity ipod and parabolic microphone so that I can surreptitiously record such conversations and then collectively process data. There is a thought. There is always that, the revancha. The rematch. Once again.
posted by ilana at 3:52 p.m.
2 Comments:
para mi, revancha siempre ha sido la oprtunidad inmediata de destronar al recien nombrado rey. Nunca lo habia pensado, pero en efecto es un terminoc interesante.
Marcelo!
Gracias por el comentario:) Sí, mi asociación con venganza era en mayor parte por ser "falso amigo" con mi lengua nativa, y también quizá por le idea de inmediatez, en el calor del momento... Pero hablando de temas amorosos (y de juego de mesa, que vienen siendo lo mismo) la revancha es como vos decís, sólo más dulce, o triste, o algo de las dos cosas, el destronar eterno, sin fin, hasta que sí hay fin... o no. Tendré que pensar más sobre esto.
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