English to Spanish translation - anyone speak fluently?

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Last Visible Canary

actively parsing hurf durf
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I'm looking for a translation of the line "a life of love is worth living"

I have "Una vida del amor", but the second part I need to be sure of. This is for a tattoo, so its somewhat important that it's correct. The initial design went from an incorrect grammatical structure - "es una vida vivio bien" (is a life alive good), to "es una vivida bien" (is a life lived well). unfortunately the correct grammatical structure leaves one word on top, and three on the bottom, making an akward visual presentation for the forearm when placed horizontally, side to side. "una vida del amore" looks fantastic as 3 words on top, one on the bottom though, since it fits the downward triangular shape of the forearm.

so... can anyone here help?




edit, the only decent translator I could find translates "a life of love is worth living" as "Una vida del amor vale vivir", but using the same program in reverse, it translates that spanish sentence into "A life of the love is worth to live."
 
Simply translating words from one language to another may not evoke the same philosophical construct within what may be a different culture.

What is "love"? Carnal love or deep affection?
What is a "life of love"?
 
Living would be viviendo and not vivir ('to live'), thats the largest flaw with the automated translators; they aren't fuzzy.

una vida de amor vale viviendo would be technically correct, I believe, but like EB said it probably loses something in translation
 
"A life of love" for this statement is a life in wich you give your heart to the people around you. Essentially it is a state of openess emotionally.

"is worth living" is meant to be a reminder that though pain and suffering may come, and though at the beginning it may seem impossible, difficult, not worth it, or painful even from the get go, it will be worth it, as a life alone is far worse.

more specifically, when your in a relationship there are many moments and times when you sheild yourself emotionally and personally against the person you love in order to avoid hurt, or becuase you beleive they will hurt your. It's a reminder that its better to love completely and be hurt, then to live a lonely life without truly deep connections.

For me, love is a distraction from loneliness. I mean it on the higher level of being "alone in your head", vs. being in the same room as someone else. It helps to draw you out into the open and make you feel connected to the world around you, it makes you feel at home.


It's meant to be very "fuzzy" :)
 
and for curiosity sake, is ""es una vivida bien" correct? The first translation from the tattoo artist himself was "es una vida vivida bien", but he then changed it to remove the vida, seemingly because vivida infers "life lived", rather then saying the "life" twice in different forms
 
LVC, just to be clear, I didn't use fuzzy in a pejorative manner. I just meant that the translators can't think around corners or catch intonation, nuance of speech, etc. And, in this circumstance, it seems that the translator has an issue with translating a regular english verb, live, to an irregular spanish verb, vivir, and adding a gerund.

The statement is pretty warm and fuzzy though!

"es una vida bien" would translate as, "its a good life".

edit: hehe. I'm going to call my mother and ask her for clarification once free 9:00pm minutes come my way. Its been awhile since I've talked to her anyway.

mom called me first and said that 'vivir' is still correct even if it does translate as, "a life of love is worth to live."
 
roughedges said:
"es una vida bien" would translate as, "its a good life".
Click to expand...

I think I like the way that sounds best of the variations I've tried so far :D

It doesn't look back, and it doesn't ask for something to happen, its just a statement of what is.... And it keeps the same basic letter distance from side to side as "una vida del", only reversed top to bottom.

Thank you :D
 
The backstory and special part of this tattoo, as it is a tattoo with a story, is that the girls name is vida. It'll probably be my last words to her unfortunately, due to circumstances neither of us want to be in place. I want them to be lasting.
 
"es una vida bien" would translate as, "its a good life".
Click to expand...

"It's a good life" should be "Es una vida buena." "Bien" is an adverb meaning "well", only idiomatically translated as "good" in certain situations, not normally.
 
good point! :D all I can remember is that one is an adjective and one an adverb and have no idea which is which. Also, usage and meaning will differ dependant on culture.
 
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So, my question now becomes, is "Una vida del amore es una vida buena" accurately translated to "a life of love is a good life" ?
 

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Last Visible Canary said:
The backstory and special part of this tattoo, as it is a tattoo with a story, is that the girls name is vida. It'll probably be my last words to her unfortunately, due to circumstances neither of us want to be in place. I want them to be lasting.
Click to expand...

In THAT case, I would change my sugggestion and the original phrasing you wanted to, "La vida es buena." :)

Life is good.
 
The one caveat being that I'm somewhat adverse using peoples peoples names as tatto's. She had said that the only tattoo she would ever get would be in one that served as a marker of our romance... Being that vida, amor, vida is highlighted in red, I can get away with it being a not so subtle reference to our conversation, to her, while maintaining a truthful statement of how I want to live.

It's a reminder by reference, rather then by direct verbiage... i guess... it's hard to put to words :) I know that she'll understand it though...

I like the way it looks as is (as long as its grammatically correct), because with a few changes it can become "a life of loving vida is a good life"
 
She must be one heck of a woman. I couldn't have a tattoo with the word vida in it without thinking of Vida Guerra at least a half dozen times a day.
 
Last Visible Canary said:
So, my question now becomes, is "Una vida del amore es una vida buena" accurately translated to "a life of love is a good life" ?
Click to expand...

I guess to be more specific, should it be "es una vida buena", or "es una buena vida"?

to my english only ears it sounds like the first states "is a life *thats* good", with *that* being assumed or implied, and the second being "is a good life". But I'm not sure wether one is more correct then the other....
 
When getting a tattoo [of your girlfriend's name] on your arm, you also have to consider what your next GF is going to think of it. :D
 
there are at least 2 fluent spanish speakers on this board. I suggest asking Don Luis. there are phrases that do not translate between the 2 languages. My friend Hector, who is puerto Rican, used to say something like "why would I **** out of my back when my a** is down here?". I bet it made more sense in Spanish. :)
 
One more question, regarding the use of "del", wich was pointed out to me as meaning "of the" vs. "de" wich is simply "of" -


Can "Una vida del amor es una vida buena" actually be translated to "a life of love is a good life", or is it very specifically "a life of the love is a good life" - something that could not be construed to mean the initial example?


I already got the tattoo, so this will determine wether or not I add bracket elements to it in order to cover up the "l"....


"a life of the love" is a description of a specific type of love of that is not clarified: as doctor hibert from the simpsons put it "are we talking about the love of a man and a woman, or the love a fine cuban cigar?"

If the sentence is correct, but simply lacking in clarification, I'm okay with that. If someone asks "what love?" I can say the love of another person. But if its grammatically wrong, then I need to modify it to make it correct.

"a life of her love"
"a life of the love of a woman"
"a life of human love"
"a life of true love"

etc etc would be more functional as having defined what type of love, but I intended it to be a general statement, not dedicated to one element of "loving", simply opening your heart to the things and beings around you.


so ya... anyone know if del is ever used in a conversational spanish to mean "of", as apposed to always meaning "of the" ?
 
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