Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

un estado más contenido bajo el soporte del tiempo

English translation:

as a state more controlled by the strictures of time

Added to glossary by Linda Grabner
Jan 4, 2018 03:00
6 yrs ago
Spanish term

un estado más contenido bajo el soporte del tiempo

Spanish to English Social Sciences Architecture John Soane and James Stirling
This is the same academic article on John Soane and James Stirling and their take on the direction of architecture; i.e., why shouldn't we take into account the eventual decline and decay of any building in the design stage of it? Working from peninsular Spanish into American English.

This time I'm not sure if my lack of understanding is due to "user error" (i.e., I just don't get it) or "author error" (i.e., a poorly worded phrase). In any event, the best approximation I can come up with for it doesn't make sense to me even in English. Here's the whole context (which happens to include the word from my last question):

Los futuros imaginados por Soane y Stirling evidencian que cualquier creación arquitectónica procede y se ve avocada hacia la ruina, un pensamiento cercano a la hipótesis de Robert Smithson en la que utilizaba el concepto de ruins in reverse (15) para toda construcción. Sus premoniciones nos permiten vislumbrar un nuevo territorio desde el que investigar la capacidad que posee la arquitectura para asumir la futura ruina de las construcciones como **un estado más contenido bajo el soporte del tiempo.**

Here's what I've come up with:
His premonitions allow us to glimpse a new terrain from which to investigate architecture's ability to assume the future ruin of constructions as **a state more contained under the basis/foundation of time.** ("Support" just really didn't seem to fit in here.)

Does this actually make sense but I'm just not seeing it? Any other possible interpretations would be greatly appreciated.

Discussion

Muriel Vasconcellos Jan 4, 2018:
@ Linda I think your interpretation (under my answer) would work, though 'passing' might be too loose. Maybe just 'by the effects of time'.
lorenab23 Jan 4, 2018:
Hidden? one more phase/stage hidden under the weight of time
Linda Grabner (asker) Jan 4, 2018:
ravages? Would I be departing too much from the original, do you think, to use something like "one more stage, subject to the ravages of time"?
Linda Grabner (asker) Jan 4, 2018:
@lorenab23 Well, that certainly helps to get me started! Good suggestion. But I'm still not happy with the phrasing of the rest of it. That whole "contained under the basis/foundation" thing just sounds too awkward, even in Spanish. I mean, what does that even mean? Any other ideas for massaging it? My brain is shot at this point.
lorenab23 Jan 4, 2018:
The way I read it not that it necessarily makes any more sense.
un estado más = one more state/stage/phase (?). As in, a structure goes through several states/stages/phases? and decay/ruin is one more.
...architecture's ability to assume the future ruin of constructions as one more phase contained under the basis/foundation of time.

Proposed translations

2 hrs
Spanish term (edited): como un estado más contenido bajo el soporte del tiempo
Selected

as a state more controlled by the strictures of time

I'm understanding it as a state, not a stage.

One of the translations of "contenido" on Linguée is 'controlled'.

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Note added at 17 hrs (2018-01-04 20:01:37 GMT)
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My final answer, based on Linda's comment below:

'one more state controlled by the effects of time'

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Note added at 17 hrs (2018-01-04 20:03:09 GMT)
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About Linguée, 'controlled' was actually one of the definitions - not just an example, as I don't trust some of those translations.
Note from asker:
Thanks, Muriel. You must have had more patience with Linguee than I did. I couldn't find any samples that seemed to be close enough to my case, but then, I only went through maybe a page of answers. I did determine, however, that "un estado más" should be "one more state (or stage)" -- so maybe "one more state controlled by the passing of time"? That "bajo el soporte" is another tricky interpretation, as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks again, Muriel -- and everyone! -- the discussions were quite helpful. I ultimately ended up going with "one more state of being subject to the effects of time". The more I thought about it, the more I thought "state" by itself just sounded too, I don't know, abrupt or incomplete.
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