snowstranger (snowstranger) wrote in linguaphiles,
2012-10-05 15:20:00

Ambiguous Spanish sentence

Hi,

there is this Spanish sentence (from an article about an exposition of Francisco Lozano's works; he's a landscape painter) that I have to translate and it seems to me as if there were two possible meanings.

La muestra recorre un paisaje que ya no podrá ser contemplado más que en contraposición con las obras expuestas.

First meaning: He painted that landscape so accurately that you can't get a better look at it, even if you look at the actual landscape and not only the paintings.

Second meaning: You can't consider the landscape other than as a counterpoint to the works.


Here you can find his paintings of the Spanish landscape and here is the actual Spanish landscape.

Can anyone help?
Tags: spanish, translation
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  • 12 comments

nanini

October 5 2012, 13:48:52 UTC 7 months ago

Hum, that's a weird sentence.
I actually thought it meant a different thing: That the landscape has changed now and it can no longer be contemplated except for a comparison with his work.
I get this from "ya no podrá ser contemplado"

bolboreta

October 5 2012, 14:55:41 UTC 7 months ago

Yeah, that was my first reading as well.

I think the ambiguity is supposed to be there. I found the text, the sentence right before says "los perfiles lejanos de los pueblos integrados en su entorno" and it's talking about the Mediterranean coast, which has been completely destroyed by badly planned buildings. But then after the sentence in the OP it goes on saying how the way he paints will make you pay attention to different things from now on.

nanini

October 5 2012, 15:01:05 UTC 7 months ago

So that makes sense. However, I don't think there's even room for ambiguity then, nor a reason to be.

bolboreta

October 5 2012, 15:19:26 UTC 7 months ago

"Ambiguity" might not be the best word. I think both meanings are meant to be there. there are two reasons why you won't look a things the same way: the landscape has changed and so have you (it goes on about how you find a new way to look at things and pay attention to what you used to think was secondary).

I'm not sure that makes more sense. I'm not good at art stuff. It doesn't matter anyway. If the sentence is translated as "now you can't see it as anything other than a comparison" the rest of the text will give the reader the reasons why.

snowstranger

October 5 2012, 22:01:49 UTC 7 months ago

thank you for your help!

caiasm

October 5 2012, 15:13:18 UTC 7 months ago

This is how I understood the sentence, too.

snowstranger

October 5 2012, 22:02:57 UTC 7 months ago

thank you!

ti_ana

October 5 2012, 22:38:11 UTC 7 months ago

This is how I read it as well.

emperor_spock

October 5 2012, 13:59:33 UTC 7 months ago Edited:  October 5 2012, 14:26:34 UTC

My vote is for the second version, since it's what the sentence says ("you can't avoid contrasting the paintings and the real landscapes after you see the paintings"). The first one is more like trying to find what actually isn't there (also, judging from the pictures at your link, his works don't seem too representative, so the matter of accuracy in his landscapes may be irrelevant here).

snowstranger

October 5 2012, 21:57:27 UTC 7 months ago

you're right, the paintings don't look too similar; thanks!

oconel

October 5 2012, 14:17:54 UTC 7 months ago

I think it means that after you've seen the paintings, when you look at the landscape, you won't be able but to compare the two (landscape and paintings)

snowstranger

October 5 2012, 21:59:11 UTC 7 months ago

thank you!