# The writing on the wall



## TraductoraPobleSec

"Here we have a people who came into being through miscegenation with the whites. And, as a mongrel race, they are, to us, *the writing on the wall*, a warning against what can happen with intermixture".

Ho traduiríeu com a *recordatori/avís/alerta*??? Cap idea més brillant?

Mil mercis


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## betulina

Hola,

Mentre no apareix algun nadiu que t'hi pugui ajudar millor, jo he entès aquest "writing on the wall" com una frase feta i he trobat això. 

No sé si et pot donar alguna idea...

Espera més opinions, però.


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## TraductoraPobleSec

Gràcies, Betulina. 

La frase que ve tot seguit és una reformulació (_a warning against what can happen_). O sigui que potser ho deixo amb *alerta* o alguna cosa en aquesta línia. Ho veus bé?


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## chics

Potser _una pintada_ (com un grafiti) _a la paret_ no és tan descabellat... i desprès sí, _una alerta del que pot passar_.

Pensa també que a d'altres llocs, i aquí a d'altres époques, es fa una pintada a la porta on viu la gent que no agrada o el que sigui, els jueus, per exemple. És un avís als altres de que el que hi viu és xungu, i també per al que hi viu, que saben on viu...


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## Eva Maria

chics said:


> Potser _una pintada_ (com un grafiti) _a la paret_ no és tan descabellat... i desprès sí, _una alerta del que pot passar_.
> 
> Pensa també que a d'altres llocs, i aquí a d'altres époques, es fa una pintada a la porta on viu la gent que no agrada o el que sigui, els jueus, per exemple. És un avís als altres de que el que hi viu és xungu, i també per al que hi viu, que saben on viu...


 
TPS,

També sembla fer referència a "The writing on the wall" que veié el rei de Babilònia Baltasar, segons la Bíblia.

EM


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## louhevly

Eva Maria said:


> TPS,
> 
> També sembla fer referència a "The writing on the wall" que veié el rei de Babilònia Baltasar, segons la Bíblia.
> 
> EM



Exactly!  We use it not so much to mean a warning, but as evidence of what is destined to come about.

"After his injury he made a valiant comeback, but the writing was on the wall." (That is, it was obvious he would never regain his full ability.)


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## chics

Eva Maria said:


> TPS,
> 
> També sembla fer referència a "The writing on the wall" que veié el rei de Babilònia, Baltasar, segons la Bíblia.
> 
> EM


 
Segur que és això!!!


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## Arrius

The writing King Belshazzar son of Nebuchadnezzar saw on the wall at his banquet written in letters of fire in an unknown language said* Mene mene tekel upharsin*, which was eventually interpreted as "Thou hast been weighed in the balance and found wanting", in Spanish "Pesado has sido en balanza, y fuiste hallado falto".


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## chics

During the banquet, he had asked for his new beautiful (stolen) vassels to drink. I think that I've heard something like the expression "tener los días contados" comes from the same story, any idea?

I say it because in Spanish "la mano que escribe en la pared" (?) isn't as known as in English.


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## Arrius

It is, indeed, a well-known expression in English, and reinforced by the well-known lines from the _Edward Fitzgerald_ translation of _Omar Khayyam,_the Persian poet's, _Rubaiyat_ referring to the same incident, which like so many other Biblical stories, presumably turns up in the Quran too:
*The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. *


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## ajohan

I would seriously consider but maybe discard "representen el principi del fi per nosaltres". After all "writing on the wall" is a warning of impending doom or a sign that a state of affairs is about to finish . I underline finish because the other definitions didn't seem to include it.


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