Vacation Journal: Entry #3
My mom keeps bragging to elderly Portuguese women about my book, only to then turn to me and say, “Tell them the title.” This is never a good idea because not only does it not translate precisely but what does come across isn’t exactly greeted with an expression that says, “You must be so proud of your son.”
Speaking of translating things that are not “cat piss,” the Portuguese word for “pregnant” is “grávida,” which sounds curiously solemn and severe for what is usually considered a joyful occasion but works perfectly for the Portuguese soap opera Louco Amor, especially when one character announces it to another who was just about to end the relationship, followed by a smash cut and a musical flourish best described as “Satan’s doorbell.”
Which of course brings us to the day Ted Forth discovered a glorious television art form…
“Gravid” is also an English synonym for “pregnant”, but it isn’t used much except by people writing entries for the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest.
Once when I worked for a company that was in the business of producing role-playing games, I got assigned a project to design a generic, medieval-style town for gamers with lesser imaginations to use (after, it was hoped, shelling out some bucks for it). One of the locations in this town was a tavern called “The Gravid Grape”.