la hicieron obispar

English translation: made a mockery of her OR killed her (untranslatable multiple wordplay)

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:la hicieron obispar
English translation:made a mockery of her OR killed her (untranslatable multiple wordplay)
Entered by: Lydia De Jorge

00:58 Jun 28, 2019
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / poesía barroca española/JÁCARA DE LA MÉNDEZ
Spanish term or phrase: la hicieron obispar
No sé si es un refrán o Quevedo jugando con las palabras. Su sentido es evidente pero no se me ocurre como traducirlo. Agradezco desde ya cualquier sugerencia.

Tiénenos muy lastimadas
la justicia, sin pensar
que se hizo en nuestra madre,
la vieja del arrabal,
pues sin respetar las tocas.
ni las canas ni la edad,
**a fuerza de cardenales
ya la hicieron obispar.**
Lydia De Jorge
United States
Local time: 05:13
made a mockery of her OR killed her (untranslatable multiple wordplay)
Explanation:
"Obispar" had three meanings:
1. become a bishop or make someone a bishop
2. be subjected to public mockery by being made to ride on an ass wearing a paper mitre on your head (this was done to "alcahuetas", procuresses).
3. die.

Meaning 1 is still in the DLE.

Meanings 1 and 2 are explained by John Stevens in his Spanish-English dictionary (1706):

"Obispar, to make a bishop, ironically, to be expos'd to publick shame, which is done riding on an ass with a paper cap, like a mitre on the head, answerable to our carting."

Meaning 3 is in early RAE dictionaries:

"Obispar. Vulgar y metaphoricamente se toma por morirse, y algunas veces por haber perdido alguna cosa que se tenia [...]"

"Cardenales", of course, means both cardinals and bruises.

So the primary meaning is "they gave her so many bruises that they exposed her to public shame" or "they killed her", or possibly even both. And it plays on a secondary meaning: "with so many cardinals they made her a bishop". It's extremely ingenious and quite impossible to capture in English.

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Note added at 56 mins (2019-06-28 01:55:08 GMT)
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I completely agree, Lydia! He is amazing; a real virtuoso with words.
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 11:13
Grading comment
Thank you!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +4made a mockery of her OR killed her (untranslatable multiple wordplay)
Charles Davis
Summary of reference entries provided
FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO. POESÍA BURLESCA
Toni Castano
forced to wear the sambenito
Chema Nieto Castañón

Discussion entries: 13





  

Answers


24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
made a mockery of her OR killed her (untranslatable multiple wordplay)


Explanation:
"Obispar" had three meanings:
1. become a bishop or make someone a bishop
2. be subjected to public mockery by being made to ride on an ass wearing a paper mitre on your head (this was done to "alcahuetas", procuresses).
3. die.

Meaning 1 is still in the DLE.

Meanings 1 and 2 are explained by John Stevens in his Spanish-English dictionary (1706):

"Obispar, to make a bishop, ironically, to be expos'd to publick shame, which is done riding on an ass with a paper cap, like a mitre on the head, answerable to our carting."

Meaning 3 is in early RAE dictionaries:

"Obispar. Vulgar y metaphoricamente se toma por morirse, y algunas veces por haber perdido alguna cosa que se tenia [...]"

"Cardenales", of course, means both cardinals and bruises.

So the primary meaning is "they gave her so many bruises that they exposed her to public shame" or "they killed her", or possibly even both. And it plays on a secondary meaning: "with so many cardinals they made her a bishop". It's extremely ingenious and quite impossible to capture in English.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 56 mins (2019-06-28 01:55:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I completely agree, Lydia! He is amazing; a real virtuoso with words.

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 11:13
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 296
Grading comment
Thank you!
Notes to answerer
Asker: I appreciate your invaluable input. Attempting to translate Quevedo has been both rewarding and challenging - at times near impossible! His work is simply wonderful and quite genius. It's a pity that most of the meaning and cleverness is lost in translation. Thanks again, Charles!


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  neilmac: A virtuoso with words? Takes one to know one, say I :-)
5 hrs
  -> Thanks very much, Neil ;-) Góngora was pretty good too. I always like his joke on Hero & Leander (she threw herself off a tower when he drowned): "El Amor, como dos huevos / quebrantó nuestras saludes / él fue pasado por agua / yo estrellada mi fin tuve"

agree  Toni Castano: Not die, I believe, but "make a mockery of". A pun or play of words, translation, again, a challenge for Lydia. I´m posting a reference.
7 hrs
  -> Thanks, Toni! I think both meanings (indeed all three) are present; it's a question of which is uppermost or "primary".

agree  Chema Nieto Castañón: I believe the primary meaning here is to be exposed to public shame, being forced to wear the [shameful cap; coroza/mitra]. Being killed might be read also metaphorically here as crushing her, defeating her...
14 hrs
  -> I agree; that is definitely the primary meaning; the context makes it clear. Whether the other is in the background, as a secondary metaphor, is more doubtful.

agree  JohnMcDove: I believe the primary meaning is the mockery. But just glancing at the overall context, the "death" nuance is very much there too. Even if not a "total" physical death, the complete destruction of a reputation is also a form of "death"./-/Agree! ¡Juas!
16 hrs
  -> Thanks very much, John ;-) I think it could be, if only because Quevedo would not neglect a layer of wordplay if it was available! But it's mainly the public shaming (and being pelted with aubergines, as you say!). Like Pablos in his "batalla nabal".
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Reference comments


8 hrs peer agreement (net): +2
Reference: FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO. POESÍA BURLESCA

Reference information:
A very helpful and interesting link that might help Lydia in her struggle through Quevedo´s very personal world.

FRANCISCO DE QUEVEDO
POESÍA BURLESCA
II
Jácaras y Bailes
Edición, glosario y notas de
IGNACIO ARELLANO
(…)
53
127-128 Vid. 849: 66. El juego cardenales/obispar en sus sentidos literales es obvio. Obispar alude a la coroza o mitra que ponían a la alcahueta: 853: 129-32 y nota.



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Note added at 8 hrs (2019-06-28 09:19:52 GMT)
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From the same reference (page 217):

Obispar: condenar a una alcahueta a salir a la
vergüenza con coroza o mitra (Léxico).

Toni Castano
Spain
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Spanish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  Charles Davis: No me cabe duda de que ese sentido está presente (es una alusión muy quevediana, además; véase El Buscón), aunque no sé si Arellano consideró también la acepción de "morirse". Es opinable.
56 mins
  -> Duda legítima. Para dar una opinión más consolidada, necesitaría leer todo el texto de Quevedo, y quizás incluso así no podría afirmar nada concluyente. En tales casos, suelo guiarme por la opinión de eruditos, pero siempre manteniendo mi sentido crítico.
agree  JohnMcDove
8 hrs
  -> Gracias, John.
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15 hrs peer agreement (net): +1
Reference: forced to wear the sambenito

Reference information:
Creo que tal y como explicado por Charles el original juega con los distintos sentidos de cardenales y obispar. Cardenales puede leerse como figura eclesiástica y como golpes (moratones). Así, a fuerza de cardenales podría leerse tanto "por fuerza, por causa de las máximas figuras de la iglesia católica" como "a base de darle una paliza; a fuerza de moratones". La segunda, "ya la hicieron obispar" juega con el sentido de "acabaron con ella" -literalmente, "la mataron"- así como con el castigo de la mitra -"le colgaron el sambenito", "le pusieron la coroza"-, además del sentido obvio, aunque no quepa en este caso, de "hacer obispo".

Colgar la coroza, mitra o sambenito es castigo cruel de la Inquisición que busca humillar públicamente al condenado, a quien se obliga a desfilar por la ciudad con el cucurucho en la cabeza.

En fin, el original puede leerse así como "a fuerza de golpes y/o por causa de la iglesia fue condenada a penar con la coroza y/o fue destruida, acabaron con ella".

Sobre la traducción de "obispar", la más literal sería en este caso, por ejemplo, "she was forced to wear the sambenito", aunque precisaría una nota para notar el triple sentido del término original -así como, probablemente, para aclarar el literal.


Condenado por la Inquisición
https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/condenad...

Obispar: condenar a una alcahueta a salir a la vergüenza con coroza o mitra (Léxico).
(...)
a fuerza de cardenales (53)
ya la hicieron obispar.
53 127-128 Vid. 849: 66 El juego cardenales/obispar en sus sentidos literales es obvio. Obispar alude a la coroza o mitra que ponían a la alcahueta
(...)
Ayer salió la Verenda (144)
obispada de coroza
por tejedora de gentes
y por enflautar personas.
144 129-132 Nuevos juegos onomásticos y alusivos. Se trata de una alcahueta, condenada a salir a la vergüenza, con coroza (Glosario), o mitra (lo mismo que coroza): por eso, por lo de la mitra, va obispada (Glosario), y siendo obispa se le puede llamar verenda (respetable, venerable: latinismo irónico, como en el soneto 385, contra Góngora: "Verendo padre, o lástima movido"). Tejedora, enflautadora son metáforas para el oficio de la alcahueta, que forman con otras (organista de placeres, encuadernadora, transponedora de personas) series de perífrasis características muy del gusto de Quevedo para referirse a las alcahuetas: ver PSB, p. 63 y nota 78.
https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://w...




Chema Nieto Castañón
Spain
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  JohnMcDove
1 hr
  -> Grax, John ;)
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