Muchos salieron bravos

[somediego]

Hola, I'm reading a poem by Borges "Milonga de los morenos", and is confused with the following stanza:

En el barrio del Retiro
Hubo mercado de esclavos;
De buena disposición
Y muchos salieron bravos.



I guess "de buena disposion y muchos salieron bravos" means (the market was) "of good condition and many (slaves) were traded" but I seriously doubt it is correct. Is "salieron bravos" an expression? Pls help me. Gracias!

[poli]

muchos salieron bravos-- in the Spanish I know means many left angry, but context here indicates otherwise. It will be interesting to see what others say, but I guess I'd be angry too if I saw an active slave market.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Bravo" in Spanish can have several meanings --fierce, brave, dangerous, violent, formidable...--, some according to the region, like the one Poli mentioned, to be angry.

In the context of the milonga, the meaning of "bravo" should be "brave". In another stanza, the poem says that during the war that gave birth to the country there was a regiment of black people who fought courageously.

"De buena disposición" here seems to be describing the physical appearance of the slaves: strong and healthy.

[aleCcowaN]

En el barrio del Retiro
hubo mercado de esclavos;
de buena disposición
y muchos salieron bravos.



de buena disposición (el mercado de esclavos***) = offering abundant quality "products" and great variety of "products".

y muchos salieron bravos = and many of the "products" were "untameable" (cheeky, surly, rash, stubborn, etc.) -this is said as a very positive quality (surely not to the "owners")-.



*** se lo ha llevado el tiempo; el tiempo, que es el olvido

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

y muchos salieron bravos = and many of the "products" were "untameable" (cheeky, surly, rash, stubborn, etc.) -this is said as a very positive quality (surely not of the "owners")-.



*** se lo ha llevado el tiempo; el tiempo, que es el olvido

[JPablo]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

En el barrio del Retiro
hubo mercado de esclavos;
de buena disposición
y muchos salieron bravos.

Hi, Alec, the Initial Capitalization at every verse is typical in Spanish poetry, so I am not sure why you make these lower case?

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by JPablo

Hi, Alec, the Initial Capitalization at every verse is typical in Spanish poetry, so I am not sure why you make these lower case?

Yes, typical -but not general nor the rule- in old poetry from Spain and ... Spain. That is not the general way, and mainly that it is not the way Borges wrote it. That capitalization is just an Anglicization, as they are Español or Los Gozos y las Sombras.

For instance, here we have one of the most famous Rimas by Bécquer. The current text, that one in CORDE and the original manuscript, have no unnecessary capitalization, while one of the original printed version did (you got the links on that page).

By the way, I couldn't found a decent video in Youtube about that milonga (Milonga de/l marfil negro/Milonga de los morenos). If they didn't know tango, they knew milonga even less (and nobody explained them that tangos and milongas aren't sung but spoken as if they were sung). I'd rather see tango ignored than dealt that way.

[JPablo]

Oh, thanks, Alec, I just saw the link and this from the Panhispánico:

3.5. Antes era costumbre, en los poemas, emplear la mayúscula al principio de cada verso, razón por la cual las letras de esta forma tomaron el nombre de «versales» (mayúsculas de imprenta). En la poesía moderna, esta costumbre está en desuso.

(I saw this usage in a lot of the 27 Generation poetry...)

As for that milonga... this is hapless, as I cannot help you there...

[somediego]

Gracias a todos! I'm convinced by aleCcowan's explanation, thanks!

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

By the way, I couldn't found a decent video in Youtube about that milonga (Milonga de/l marfil negro/Milonga de los morenos). If they didn't know tango, they knew milonga even less (and nobody explained them that tangos and milongas aren't sung but spoken as if they were sung). I'd rather see tango ignored than dealt that way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDLlzhFOd8E

How about this one?

And Pls forgive my poor understanding of español. I'm still not clear about the "salieron". Can anyone tell me the exact meaning of this word? because I think the slaves were coming and not leaving.

[Rusty]

salieron = turned out, came out