Spanish term (edited): detener en un instante y concientizar

OR:

to take a moment to stop and think

These are simple, straightforward alternatives that would seem to capture the intended meaning. More context would be helpful here.

"Ponder" would really only be appropriate if a direct object followed, which does not appear to be the case.

Suerte.

No me parece que "concientizar" sea la palabra más correcta aquí... Sobre todo porque el significado es mas bien "to raise awareness" (o sea, en otras personas).

Y aquí me parece que están hablando de reflexionar uno mismo...

Reflexionar = to ponder, to mull over (something)

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Note added at 6 mins (2006-06-28 18:25:54 GMT)
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Además, la redacción no es la mejor de todas en español...

Debería ser algo así: "El regalo de la vida es como para detenerse un instante y reflexionar sobre él."






PONDER
1 : to weigh in the mind : EVALUATE, APPRAISE <pondered the child, and the life she had thus far lived -- Elizabeth M. Roberts>
2 : to deliberate over : think out <ponder the shape and size of a new product>
3 : to think about : muse over <ponder the events of history>
intransitive verb : to think or consider especially quietly, soberly, and deeply -- often used with on or over <ponder over a moral issue>
synonyms PONDER, MEDITATE, MUSE, and RUMINATE can mean to consider something attentively or with more or less deliberation. PONDER can suggest a careful weighing and balancing of considerations bearing on a matter, or a mere deliberative even though inconclusive thinking about something <United States customs officials pondered whether to admit as art and as sculpture a work by the Rumanian modernist -- Thomas Munro> <I shall ponder the matter carefully, my friends, and with the help of prayer, I may yet arrive at some solution of our difficulties -- Elinor Wylie> <they demand a good deal of careful pondering and the recollection of pertinent facts -- J.H.Robinson died 1936> <pondered over God's greatness and incomprehensibility -- H.O.Taylor> MEDITATE suggests more a directing or focusing of one's thoughts in an effort to comprehend something, or it can suggest merely deep consideration, often with a purpose or plan in mind to be settled <the young priest blotted himself out of his own consciousness and meditated upon the anguish of his Lord -- Willa Cather> <meditated with concentrated attention on the problem of flight -- Havelock Ellis> <what she meditated doing on England's behalf -- C.S.Forester> MUSE can come close to MEDITATE but more often suggests a mere more or less focused daydreaming as in remembrance <he sat immovably, like one that mused on some great purpose -- Thomas De Quincey> <he mused wretchedly, as he walked homeward, what might she not do? -- William McFee> <still a pleasant mystery; enough to muse over on a dull afternoon -- Elmer Davis> <not so much in order to read it as to muse with kindly condescension over this token of bygone fashion -- Virginia Woolf> RUMINATE usually implies a going over the same matter again and again, suggesting less than the other terms a deliberative weighing or a focusing or absorption <I sit at home and ruminate on the qualities of certain little books like this one -- L.P.Smith> <forty years of ruminating on life -- Waldemar Kaempffert> <the characters of the new friends he made interested him tremendously, and he could ruminate upon them when alone -- Osbert Sitwell> <to teach philosophy, write, and ruminate beneath elms -- Whitney Balliett>



"ponder." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (28 Jun. 2006).


MULL (OVER)
3 : to consider or talk over the aspects of (as a problem) at length or at leisure : go over in one's mind : PONDER <tax experts, mulling how to keep on a pay-as-you-go basis -- Time> <aides mull a batch of overseas disposal plans -- Wall Street Journal> -- often used with over <the idea he was mulling over that spring -- Virginia D. Dawson & Betty D. Wilson> <sat mulling over what she had said -- Cortland Fitzsimmons> <mulling over a new quilt pattern -- Julian Dana> <mulled the book over in his mind -- Henry Giniger>

"mull." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (28 Jun. 2006).

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Note added at 19 mins (2006-06-28 18:38:53 GMT)
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Eh... otra cosa:

"Concientizar" ahora está registrado por el DRAE, pero recuerdo (en mis tiempos en que pertenecía a una asociación juvenil de Rotary International) que siempre nos corregían y decían que era CONCIENCIAR.

Ahora ya lo registra el DRAE como americanismo.

Curiosidades del idioma :)



concientizar.

1. tr. Am. concienciar.

concienciar.

1. tr. Hacer que alguien sea consciente de algo. U. t. c. prnl.
2. prnl. Adquirir conciencia de algo.
¶
MORF. conjug. c. anunciar.

Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados

concienciación, concienciar, concientización, concientizar. → conciencia.

. El verbo correspondiente (‘hacer que [alguien] sea consciente de algo’) es concienciar (no Marca de incorrección.concienzar), y se acentúa como anunciar (→ apéndice 1, n.º 4): «Se conciencia a los padres del estado de su hijo» (Mundo [Esp.] 3.7.97); en América se usa también la forma concientizar: «¡Aquí necesitamos gente como ustedes para concientizar al pueblo!» (Palencia Camino [Ven. 1989]). Los sustantivos son, respectivamente, concienciación y concientización.

Diccionario panhispánico de dudas ©2005
Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados

Una tibia sugerencia (hace falta más contexto).

Synonyms: bear in mind, conjure up ... summon up (Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition)

reflect or meditate seem appropiate given the poetic nature of the text