La rambla saca sus escrituras

[Perikles]

Does this mean "to live up to its name"?

This (http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2012/09/29/actualidad/1348953421_631910.html) is the sad context.

Thanks

[aleCcowaN]

No idea. Your conjecture is plausible. I didn't even know that a rambla wasn't other thing than a wooden boardwalk on the beach sand or a coastal promenade.

[Perikles]

The GDO gives

rambla femenino
1 (cauce seco) dry riverbed, watercourse
2 (Río de la Plata) (paseo marítimo) esplanade, promenade
3 (avenida) boulevard

so I guess that the 3 actually becomes a 1 every 40 years :thinking:

[aleCcowaN]

It looks from the piece of news that a rambla in locally what we call a cañadón, that is the low-lying part of a field or glen that is flooded during heavy storms. In many secondary and tertiary roads there is little to no engineering to channel or direct the waters because it makes no sense to expend a lot of money to allow the scarce transit during a few hours during exceptional storms coming every forty years. So educated drivers avoid to cross running waters on the pavement unless they are just a few centimetres and the storm is gone hours ago.

Maybe those ramblas have another name in my country, but I live in the Pampas, so I have only "flatland" vocabulary.

[irmamar]

Look the first definition here (http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=rambla). We say that the river always come back to its bed. People build many buildings on places where water flows when the rivers burst its banks. "Escrituras" has the meaning of the right of the river to take its own property, as if the river had a deed of the land. :)

[Perikles]

Thank you. I can't think of an English equivalent, but at least I know what it means. :)

[JPablo]

In the context, the definition given by Irma is the correct one. In the article, there is another usage of "rambla" as in Moliner, "2 *Corriente de agua que pasa por él. Arramblar, enramblar."

The last verses in the article confirm what Irma says,

“Lumbrerenses: nunca en pos
vayas de lo que no es tuyo
dale a dios lo que es de dios
y a la rambla lo que es suyo”.

"Dry riverbed" "watercourse" (as you say in your entry) is the only English "equivalent" I can think of for this context.

[Perikles]

Thanks all :thumbsup:

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Perikles: The sentence means that the rambla claims its territory every forty years.

"Las escrituras" are someone's title deed; "sacar" here, is used as "mostrar". :)

[Perikles]

Yes, I thought so. Thanks :):)