PURA VIDA: Some thoughts about translation and semiotics (Revised)

IMAGE: A radiant heart with abstract interlinking patterns on the periphery.

Gwen: (delicately sipping a mochaccino, jazz melodies humming in the background while 
     gazing at a digital artwork) Pura Vida: isn't that a Spanish phrase? To me, 
     it sounds like a sunny catchphrase.
      
Tara: It is. In fact, that phrase is a cultural meme in Costa Rica. However, it's 
     difficult to translate well in English.

Gwen: Why? Both words seem straightforward enough.

Tara: (shaking her head) Ah, but language is never just words. We should never trust 
     surface translations. Words carry many centuries of cultural sediment. 

Noel: Indeed. Translation is both an art and science—balancing fidelity to words with 
     fealty to meaning and feeling. It's semiotics in motion.

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from Celebrations ah Song: Rejoicing Through Art, Poetry & Narratives with T Newfields
SUMMARY: A discussion of language, meaning, and how emotional nuances often get lost in translation.
KEYWORDS: semantics, etymology, cultural contexts, translation theory, semiotics, 
        word meaning, philology, semiology

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955 - ?)
Begun: 2003 in Nagoya, Japan ✶ Finished: 2023 in Yokohama, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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TRANSLATIONS

ESPAÑOL   https://www.tnewfields.info/es/p-vida.htm
NIHONGO   https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/puura.htm    
ZHŌNGWÉN  https://www.tnewfields.info/zh/pula.htm