He had been snatched

[LearningSpanish]

I have recently read 'he had been snatched.....' translated as

'se había librado por los pelos de la multitud enfurecida.

If I was trying to translate it I would probably have tried to use arrebatar

Había sido arrebatado. perhaps?

Would that work? Why did the translator use 'se había librado' - so the 'been' bit doesn't need to be translated?

Se había by itself is a good translation for 'he had been'?

Thanks for your thoughts

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by LearningSpanish

I have recently read 'he had been snatched.....' translated as

'se había librado por los pelos de la multitud enfurecida.

If I was trying to translate it I would probably have tried to use arrebatar

Había sido arrebatado. perhaps?

Would that work? Why did the translator use 'se había librado' - so the 'been' bit doesn't need to be translated?

Se había by itself is a good translation for 'he had been'?

Thanks for your thoughts

The translation is a perfectly normal translation equivalent, but it does not have the same grammatical structure as the source. A more-literal reading of the translation is:

"He had escaped by the hairs from the angry crowd." = "He had barely manage to escape from the angry crowd.

librarse = "to escape, to get out of"

[LearningSpanish]

Thank you

[Still Learning]

It's an idiomatic saying. Direct translation won't do. In English it means "saved by the skin of his teeth." In this case: "he had been saved by the skin of his teeth." The English version is tailored for English speakers, the Spanish for Spanish. You will not always find direct correspondence. But the same idea is conveyed.

[LearningSpanish]

Quite right you are Gracias