Brasilian Portuguese Translation Help

June 11, 2014 9:52 AM

I'm a high school marching band director and our fall marching show is jazz from Cuba, Brasil, and the United States. Visually I'm using vintage postcards that someone may have sent while traveling. My translation of "Wish you were here!" is as follows... "Queria que você estivesse aqui!"

Is this accurate, formal, or completely wrong? Please post more accurate translations and maybe an explanation as to why. Thanks for your time!

posted by bach to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Best answer: "Quem dera você estivesse aqui!" is conversational with the more grammatical form being "Quem me dera que você estivesse aqui!"

Reference: Someone who has watched many Brazilian soap operas.
posted by vacapinta at 10:00 AM on June 11, 2014

Best answer: "Queria que você estivesse aqui!" is very accurate. I would say that "Gostaria que você estivesse aqui" is closer, though.
posted by florzinha at 10:23 AM on June 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I agree with florzinha that "gostaria"would be better than "queria", but I would offer you this additional suggestion: "Pena que você não está aqui". It's a tad shorter, and the message isn't quite the same. My suggestion is more along the lines of "shame you aren't here", and colloquially I think gets at the idea a little better. It's what I say in Portuguese when I want to say "wish you were here".
posted by msali at 9:29 PM on June 11, 2014

msali: Is "Quem dera" not used then or does it mean something different?
posted by vacapinta at 12:08 AM on June 12, 2014

I think "quem dera" is fine vacapinta; we've just come up with three or four different ways to get at the same thing. Such is the nature of translation. I hope OP lets us know which option they choose!
posted by msali at 7:41 AM on June 12, 2014

Response by poster: I kept it as I asked it. Thanks everyone!
posted by bach at 7:54 PM on June 22, 2014