READIN

🦋 The movie

The video Máximo Afonso rents at the beginning of The Double is called Quem Porfia Mata Caça -- internet translation sites seem to think this proverb should be translated as "Where there's a will, there's a way"; Jull Costa chooses "The race is to the swift" -- which does sound like a good title for a movie, though from checking with imdb, it does not appear to have been used that way yet. This title is repeated several times in the first few pages -- makes it seem like riffing on the adage is going to be an important part of the book. I think the literal translation is something like "He who perseveres will kill his prey."

posted morning of Sunday, July 19th, 2009
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The name was called Quien no se amaña no se apaña in spanish, which if it's a proverb, it's not used in Chile, but the proverb you found sounds like a good translation.
I don't know how far are you in The Double, but based on the novel, I'd say there's no real movie.

posted morning of July 19th, 2009 by Jorge López

Yeah, I'm sure the movie is something Saramago made up when he was writing the book... I wonder whether "Quien no se amaña no se apaña" is a commonly used saying in Spain? -- Googling for that phrase I am only finding hits that reference this book; but it would really surprise me if Pilar had not chosen a standard expression when translating this.

I'm curious to know how she dealt with this passage (in the first chapter):

O titulo, o tal Quem Porfia Mata Caça, era uma daquelas metáforas óbvias, do tipo branco é galinha o põe, caça, caçada e caçadores era coisa que não se via na história...

In the English this is rendered as

The title, The Race is to the Swift, was deployed merely as a very obvious metaphor, like one of those really easy riddles, what's white and is laid by a hen, though there was no mention of races, runners, or speed...

-- I thought that made sense for why Jull Costa had chosen this particular maxim, "race" is a good term to use in pace of "caça" when English does not have a similar proverb using "hunt" -- but in that Spanish sentence I'm not really seeing an equivalent point of reference.

posted morning of July 19th, 2009 by Jeremy

I'll check it out when I get my book back!

posted afternoon of July 19th, 2009 by Jorge López

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