una ortopédica zanahoria con chile

English translation: She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Spanish term or phrase:	una ortopédica zanahoria con chile
English translation:	She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.
Entered by:	amelie08

08:53 Nov 11, 2014

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Poetry & Literature / una ortopédica zanahoria con chile

Spanish term or phrase: una ortopédica zanahoria con chile

Gunter también masticaba cebolla, la cruda gama de la artillería culinaria germana. Y tragaba galones diarios de cerveza (la cambió por el whisky cuando cumplió cincuenta), pero los ejercicios de caballo que hacía al despertarse le mantenían plano y perejil el abdomen -y Eliza lo mimaba como a una ortopédica zanahoria con chile-. Ella había adquirido la costumbre de pensar en Madrid en sus momentos de limbo sartreano.

Juan Manuel Marcos,El invierno de Gunter

A que se refiere con una ortopédica zanahoria con chile?

amelie08 KudoZ activity Questions: 401 (7 open) (8 without valid answers) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 3 Türkiye
Local time: 18:35

She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.

Explanation:
Orthopaedic carrots notwithstanding, the above is a paraphrase of what I think the meaning is.

Selected response from:

Marian Vieyra
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:35

Grading comment

Now I got it. Thanks a lot .
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +1

She spoiled him with chile like she would an orthopedic carrot

Ellison Moorehead

2 +2

rickety spiced carrot

Noni Gilbert Riley

carrot with chile Orthopedic (Nurse) (this is NOT a culinary reference)

TravellingTrans

She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.

Marian Vieyra

Discussion entries: 8

Noni Gilbert Riley

Spain

Combo

14:46 Nov 12, 2014

How about inserting my rickety into Ellison's version?

amelie08

Türkiye

ASKER

11:13 Nov 12, 2014

I still can not understand how to translate orthopaedic carrot, tell me please another alternative word which has close meaning.

Noni Gilbert Riley

Spain

@Ellison and Marian

10:36 Nov 12, 2014

Yes, that reading works too, which opens new avenues!

Marian Vieyra

United Kingdom

Changing the sentence round...

10:31 Nov 12, 2014

Eliza lo mimaba con chile, como a una ortopédica zanahoria - is how I see it. Isn't the 'como a' referring to the carrot, not Gunter or Eliza?
She spoiled him with chili, like some orthopaedic carrot.

neilmac

Spain

The book

06:53 Nov 12, 2014

appears to have been translated already: "Juan Manuel Marcos's Gunter's Winter, translated for the first time in English by Tracy Karl Lewis, offers a poetic and intellectually challenging...."

TravellingTrans

United States

@Helena

00:50 Nov 12, 2014

had same thoughts, but if orthopedica was modifying Gunter it would be masculine: orthopedico. The fact that it is feminine and comes before zanahoria tends to make it refer to Eliza, with "zanahoria con chile" modifying what type of orthopedica. I thought about it meaning his penis but then it would come after zanahoria con chile, not before. Zanahoria con chile is modifying orthopedica and since orthopedica/o is the term for someone who works in orthopedics (like psicologico/a) and since he's already used some strange metaphors like a flat and parsley stomach, based on the overall weirdness of the writing style and the grammatical and structural construction, I think Eliza is his "carrot-with-spice" orthopedic nurse because it carries the overall tone relative to the previous passages best.

Helena Chavarria

Spain

Or taking it further

21:06 Nov 11, 2014

the carrot could refer to the man's penis (I'm thinking of the shape) but you needn't worry about that, because there's no need to over-translate and you can stick with the carrot!

Helena Chavarria

Spain

I could easily be wrong but

21:02 Nov 11, 2014

I understand that 'mimando una zanahoria ortopédica con chile' is the same as spoiling/taking care of an rickety elderly man whose mind is still hot. In other words, a randy old man who would love to get into bed with Eliza but he's not up to it! And it's during moments like this when Eliza thinks of Madrid, to take her mind off things.

Answers

17 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

rickety spiced carrot

Explanation:
I'm reasonably happy with rickety, but wonder if I'm not getting the full picture over the chile combo - perhaps this is a typical dish from German cuisine? Any suggestions anyone? Or perhaps it's just another example of a healthy dish.

Hmm, definitely low confidence rating here, but at least we can get the ball rolling...

Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Local time: 17:35
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 80

8 hrs confidence:

carrot with chile Orthopedic (Nurse) (this is NOT a culinary reference)

Explanation:
coming in front of the word and keeping with the string of food metaphors, the ortopédica is refering to Eliza, ortopédico/ortopédica like an orthopedic nurse. As an excerpt from what appears to be a surrealist piece of fiction, or at least the author favors food metaphors, look at the remaining text:

le mantenían plano y perejil el abdomen - kept his abdomen flat and parsely
cebolla, la cruda gama de la artillería culinaria germana - onion, the raw spectrum of german culinary artillery
y Eliza lo mimaba como a una ortopédica zanahoria con chile - and Eliza spoiled him like an carrot with chile Orthopedic nurse.

I know, it doesn't make sense, but neither does a flat and parsley abdomen.

I'm taking "los ejercicios de caballo que hacía al despertarse" to basically mean sex since I don't think it's referring to pommel horse exercises (the literal meaning).

It seems like one of those magical-realism/surrealism type passages, but Eliza is the ortopédica zanahoria con chile and the ortopédica is being used to describe her "job".

It would be zanahoria con chile ortopédica if orthopedic where modifying what type of carrot with chile.

TravellingTrans
United States
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8

1 day 12 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

She spoiled him with chile like she would an orthopedic carrot

Explanation:
I think another reading is possible here. She's spoiling him with chile like he were an orthopedic carrot. I think we can maintain "orthopedic" although rickety is a great word.

You can keep it equally ambiguous by moving the order around: She spoiled him like she would an orthopedic carrot with chile.

Ellison Moorehead
Spain
Local time: 17:35
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English

Notes to answerer

Asker: Yes , I can not understand the part orthopaedic carrot. What else I can say?

1 day 6 hrs confidence:

She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.

Explanation:
Orthopaedic carrots notwithstanding, the above is a paraphrase of what I think the meaning is.

Marian Vieyra
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:35
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 47

Grading comment

Now I got it. Thanks a lot .

Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:

ProZ.com term search

Search millions of term translations

una ortopédica zanahoria con chile

English translation: She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.

Answers

KudoZ™ translation help

Your current localization setting

Select a language

una ortopédica zanahoria con chile

English translation: She pampered his rickety old bones with chili.

Answers

KudoZ™ translation help

You have native languages that can be verified

Your current localization setting

Select a language