Aprendió a conocer ...

[Perikles]

Aprendió a conocer los barcos por sus voces, por el tamaño de sus luces en el horizonte, y a percibir que algo de ellos le llegaba de regreso en los relámpagos del faro.

El amor en los tiempos de cólera

Qué significa algo de ellos le llegaba ...... ?

Gracias

[aleCcowaN]

conocer.
(Del lat. cognoscĕre).

1. tr. Averiguar por el ejercicio de las facultades intelectuales la naturaleza, cualidades y relaciones de las cosas.
2. tr. Entender, advertir, saber, echar de ver.
3. tr. Percibir el objeto como distinto de todo lo que no es él.
....

Fuente: DRAE, 23a. edición

[Perikles]

OK, but

percibir que algo de ellos le llegaba de regreso en los relámpagos del faro.

[chileno]

Y la imagen fugaz que le daba la luz del faro.

La duración de la luz que iluminaba brevemente la embarcación.

[aleCcowaN]

I concur; the quick flash offered more visual information, subtle and blurry, all of it helping the character to spot each individual vessel. It's all showed as an estesia, sort of, this way to perceive is to sight the same way intuition is to intelligence, so, there's some activity of the id involved -and all the emotions potentially attached-.

[Perikles]

I feel brain-dead. How would you translate de regreso ?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I feel brain-dead. How would you translate de regreso ?

in return..

that returned...

that came back...

[aleCcowaN]

de regreso = back; backwards; the returning phase of a movement (a ball bounced, a beam reflected, a sound echoed)

The beacon swept the sea and the vessels flashed back its reflexion.

[Perikles]

Thanks guys, but it still doesn't quite make sense to me.

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

The beacon swept the sea and the vessels flashed back its reflexion.

Why would anybody have to learn how to perceive this?

[aleCcowaN]

I didn't read the book -I don't use to read fiction- so, take the following just as an speculation, not even a hypothesis. From that paragraph I imagine -no reason whatsoever- that a lonely lighthouse keeper, or somebody that lives a lonely or troublesome existence near a lighthouse or a port, that such a person is describing how he developed sort of a sixth sense to guess distant vessels in the dead of the night and project himself into the distance, as if a certain familiarity should derive from it. I think this emotional aspect is what is trying to convey that explanation about how his perception works: it's through the atmosphere created by the depiction of his perception that we know how much and deep it means to him.

[chileno]

I guess it says "he learned how to recognize the vessels...."?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Aprendió a conocer los barcos por sus voces, por el tamaño de sus luces en el horizonte, y a percibir que algo de ellos le llegaba de regreso en los relámpagos del faro.

El amor en los tiempos de cólera

Qué significa algo de ellos le llegaba ...... ?

Gracias

"Aprendió a conocer..." suggests he usually heard the the honks and saw the lights of the boats that passed by, and after he noticed that if he paid attention, he could distinguish particular differences. So, he learnt --by listening and observing-- to identify which boat was the one he was listening to or watching.

The whole sentence suggests the man has developed some affection, maybe even some nostalgia, for those boats coming and going, so as he sadly feels they're away, he watches the lights of the lighthouse and he then feels they are closer to him, not because he's watching the boats under the reflection of the lights, but because he knows the boats can actually see the lights too. That's what brings a part of the boats (some sort of spirit he perceives) back to him.

[poli]

It's like the way a dog knows its master's footsteps.

[Luna Azul]

@Perikles, are you having problems with the term "algo de ellos"?

It refers to 'an entity that belongs to the ships, something the ships possess'. He felt those 'entities' came back to him through the flashes sent by the lighthouse.

You have to understand this is literary Spanish and it's not always easy to translate.

Translating García Márquez is very difficult for what I know.

[Perikles]

I sort of get the gist, but couldn't find words in English to translate directly.

Thanks everyone!

[poli]

The best translation I can think of is to get to know (the way of).

I'm huge fan of this but:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVbJhg23Ao

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

A translation proposal:

"He learnt to identify the boats by their voices, by the size of their lights at the horizon, and to perceive that something from them came back to him through the flashes of the lighthouse."

[chileno]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

A translation proposal:

"He learnt to identify the boats by their voices, by the size of their lights at the horizon, and to perceive that something from them came back to him through the flashes of the lighthouse."

That's excellent!

[poli]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Aprendió a conocer los barcos por sus voces, por el tamaño de sus luces en el horizonte, y a percibir que algo de ellos le llegaba de regreso en los relámpagos del faro.

El amor en los tiempos de cólera

Qué significa algo de ellos le llegaba ...... ?

Gracias

He got to know the boats. Their sounds were voices to him. He knew the size of their lights in the horizon. He saw them as individuals as they returned past the flashes of the lighthouse.

[Perikles]

Thanks both. Any more? This could be a competition with a prize