Translation Article 632, Informal Portuguese: “A Inês é morta” and “a la fresca .” Definitions, examples, translations into English, Origin, Accuracy.
Michael D. Powers, Ph.D., USCCI
US Certified Court Interpreter 1980 / Ph.D. Spanish Portuguese 1981 / 24 years university professor / Estimates: 12,000+ depositions, hearings, etc. / 850 trials / 3000 documents / Conference Interpreter 650 conferences
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?Translation Article 632, Informal Portuguese: “A Inês é morta” and “a la fresca .” Definitions, examples, translations into English, Origin, Accuracy..
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1) A Inês é morta.
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Definition
[Ines is dead]
Expression used to state that a circumstance took place too late.
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Translation
That opportunity already came and went
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Origin
As? stated above, the literal translation is “Ines is dead.”
Actually, the origin of this saying is quite interesting. Inês de Castro was Dom Pedro I’s lover before the former became King of Portugal. She was the illegitimate daughter of a Greek genglement that had siblings that wanted to reannex Portugal to the Kingdome of Spain.
Once Dom Pedro’s first wife died, Dom Afonso IV and his vassals feared to Ines’s influence on the politics of the future king and thus Portugal’s independence. As a result, Afonso IV had Ines and the three biological children of Ines and Pedro murdered while Pedro was traveling. ??
When Pedro got back, he found his beloved Ines dead. However, that did not stop him. After Afonso IV’s death, Pedro I assumed the throne and gave the two to Ines, even though her body had already begun to decompose. As a result, the Portuguese royalty was forced to kiss the hand of his decaying wife, the Queen of Portugal.
So, as you can see in this case, ?even though Ines was dead, that was too little, too late to stop her from becoming the Queen of Portugal.
Accuracy Score
134 agree and 44 disagree
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Meaning “now it is too late”
48 agree, 14 disagree
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Comment
These were the only two cases in which more than 75% of respondents with a pool of 10 or more giving their opinion agreed with the proposed meaning.
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2) a la fresca
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Definition
[to the breeze, to the freshness, to the cool air]
to express amazement, terror, surprise, disbelief,
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Translations
Literally, [to the breeze, to the freshness, to the cool air]
No way! You’ve got to be kidding! I can’t believe it! On my God!
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Example
- N?o senhor, n?o é doen?a; é que sucedeu-me uma desgra?a; perdi uma dinheirama do meu patr?o... -?a la fresca! - é verdade... antes morresse que isso! [...]"
- No sir, it is not a sickness; what happened to me was tragedy; I lost a lot of my boss’s money …
- no way!
- It’s true … I would have preferred to die before doing that! [ooo]
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Sources
Word Perfect Portuguese English app up through 2024
Dicionário Informal. Online. Updated every day.