Spanish (Portuguese?) translation needed.

January 15, 2004 1:24 PM

Spanish (Portuguese?) Translation Needed, please [more inside...]

Can someone who reads fluent Spanish please look at this website and tell me if they're actually trying to sell the items pictured, or if the items are just being advertised as 'for sale' in some kind of role-playing game or other fantasy/pretend scenario?

They're stealing images from a friends ecommerce site (as well as other ecomm sites around the web), and if they're just pretending to sell the items they're going to be a lot less harsh than if the website owner is actually trying to advertise the items as her own.

Web translation has given us the gist of the text on the site, but we're not getting a good enough with free translation services to know if this is real or pretend.

posted by anastasiav to Society & Culture (20 answers total)

Best answer: It's Spanish and it looks to be pretend. One clue is that all the prices are in gold and silver galleons. It's a whole community where people role-play harry potter characters and have set up a whole virtual world on the web.
posted by vacapinta at 1:42 PM on January 15, 2004

While on this topic, and with apologies to anastasiav (sorry sorry), can anyone tell me what the spanish word "arde" means? I've looked in several spanish => english dictionaries and can never find it. /derail
posted by dobbs at 1:55 PM on January 15, 2004

What vacapinta said. Para comprar cuaquier tunica deja tu mensaje en lechucería y pon como asunto: túnicas, at the bottom, does mean in general "leave a message to buy whatever tunic," but since the price is in galleions, I can't believe they're serious.
posted by whoshotwho at 1:56 PM on January 15, 2004

Babelfish says "arde" means "it burns."
posted by Skot at 2:01 PM on January 15, 2004

arde is the third-person of arder
posted by vacapinta at 2:06 PM on January 15, 2004

Response by poster: vacapinta, whoshotwho, thanks for taking a look -- one follow-up question: we picked up the whole 'galeones, sickles knuts' thing, but then the prices all say something like "o 50 dolares" -- which is part of what has us thrown. Isn't "o 50 dolares" something like "or 50 dollars"? Made us wonder if the HP prices just there for 'atmosphere'?
posted by anastasiav at 2:07 PM on January 15, 2004

Response by poster: the prices all --> some of the prices - now one, used to be (like yesterday) more than this one....
posted by anastasiav at 2:08 PM on January 15, 2004

Anastasiav: it's a stupid joke. They only mention the dollar price once.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:12 PM on January 15, 2004

Thanks vacapinta and Skot.
posted by dobbs at 2:16 PM on January 15, 2004

Response by poster: Thank you everyone. I appreciate your help. Machine translation sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. We were 90% sure that it was, indeed, some kind of game, but I appreciate your helping us with the other 10%.
posted by anastasiav at 2:37 PM on January 15, 2004

dobbs, shouldn't your next question be what 'Migala' means? :)
posted by Marquis at 3:53 PM on January 15, 2004

Just a suggestion, you might want to get a helpful Spanish speaking person to translate your 'copied image' message as well. So that all the site's visitors can benefit from it.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:56 PM on January 15, 2004

Marquis, har har. I was curious about Arde because I had thought that I'd read it meant "on fire" and I wanted to use it as a company name in a script I'm writing. When I researched the word for verification the only place I could find it was in Migala reviews and I thought maybe they were pulling a fast one on us English speaking people. Didn't want it to be in my script when it was really spanish for coprophagous. :)

Oddly, it never occured to me to wonder what Migala means. Do you know?
posted by dobbs at 7:10 PM on January 15, 2004

I'm not actually sure what "migala" means, if anything. Cursory searches in spanish-english dictionaries came up with nothing... Maybe it's a kind of car.

Given the translation that's been given, Arde might be a good name for an aftershave company...
posted by Marquis at 7:36 PM on January 15, 2004

A migala is a tarantula

In context (album name) 'Arde' is best translated as 'It Burns'
posted by vacapinta at 7:54 PM on January 15, 2004

Response by poster: you might want to get a helpful Spanish speaking person to translate your 'copied image' message as well. So that all the site's visitors can benefit from it.

Hmm. If only I knew where to find a helpful Spanish speaking person who might do that. Hmmm. :-)

More seriously -- we considered that when we posted the new pics but we (ok, I -- I do their web work) was skittish about using a machine translation as the text for fear of it coming out hopelessly wrong somehow. Nothing worse than thinking you're saying "Please don't steal our images" and actually saying "It does not rob our images please" or something of the sort.
posted by anastasiav at 9:11 PM on January 15, 2004

I agree completely. Machine translation is not the way to go. I would volunteer to help you, but while I am helpful, and a person, I am not Spanish speaking. My second language is a half-assed blend of high school French and Brasilian Portuguese.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:35 AM on January 16, 2004

Best answer: You are being too nice but...here is a translation of what you have now:

Esta imagen esta aqui sin permiso!
Por favor, no roben nuestras imagenes!
posted by vacapinta at 1:11 AM on January 16, 2004

Response by poster: Thank you!
posted by anastasiav at 5:45 AM on January 16, 2004

And if you can, accents on "está aquí" and "imágenes".
posted by Khalad at 6:32 AM on January 16, 2004