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English to Portuguese: Mabini Shadows General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - English ...
Lin Lin held on to the overhead stainless steel bar as the jeepney jerked forward and stopped, slowly jolting its way through Manila traffic. By not taking a taxi she saved eighty pesos of the transportation money Dan sent via her friend, Helen. Such stinginess saddened her, but the money would buy rice for her nieces and nephews. Besides, the jeepney took longer, and she was scared to see Dan again.
The week she spent with him last year seemed as far away as America itself. Tonight he would laugh at her. No, he was a nice foreigner. He wouldn’t laugh, just turn his face away. Then maybe he would give her money.
That’s why she finally decided to go, for the money.
Last year, Dan was her last special customer. Two weeks after their time together, when Dan paid out her bar fine for almost three entire weeks, the newly elected Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim shut down the Mabini bars.
After that she went to The Hollywood Club in nearby Pasay. She couldn’t refuse to go with any man who paid her bar fee. Besides, the small elderly Japanese man was nice until they were inside the short-time hotel. Then he bound and gagged her and sliced up her face. The fifty thousand pesos he left her paid for the hospital, but not plastic surgery.
After her wounds healed the only job she could find was in the back room of a dockside bar servicing sailors for twenty pesos. Most were too drunk to notice the quilt of scars that was her face.
She missed the old Mabini, the fun and excitement, the safety and money and, most of all, Dan.
The shadows sensed her approach and understood her misery. She used to share the Mabini sidewalk with them. Many Mabini women loved customers who didn’t return that feeling or who still had to go back to their country. Who promised to return next year but often didn’t. Feeling Dan’s affection for the Lin Lin he remembered from a year ago, the shadows wondered—could he love the woman now coming to see him?
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Translation - Portuguese ...
Lin Lin segurava-se à barra de aço inoxidável enquanto o micro-ônibus se sacudia para frente e parava, fazendo vagarosamente o seu trajeto em meio ao trânsito de Manila. Não pegando um táxi ela economizara oitenta pesos do dinheiro que Dan lhe enviara através de sua amiga, Helen. Tal mesquinhez a entristecia, mas o dinheiro compraria arroz para seus sobrinhos e sobrinhas. Além disso, o micro-ônibus demorava mais, e ela estava com medo de ver Dan novamente.
A semana que havia passado com ele no ano anterior parecia estar tão distante quanto a própria América. Hoje, ele riria dela. Não... ele era um estrangeiro gentil. Ele não riria, apenas viraria o rosto. E talvez lhe desse algum dinheiro.
Foi por isso que ela finalmente decidiu ir: pelo dinheiro.
No ano anterior, Dan fora seu último cliente especial. Duas semanas depois do tempo que passaram juntos, quando ele pagou a taxa de serviço do bar onde ela trabalhava por quase três semanas inteiras, o prefeito recém-eleito de Manila, Alfredo Lim, fechou os bares de Mabini.
Depois disso, ela foi trabalhar no The Hollywood Club, em uma cidade próxima chamada Pasay. Lá, ela não podia se negar a sair com nenhum homem que pagasse sua taxa de serviço e, além do mais, o velhinho japonês havia sido gentil até chegarem ao motel... onde ele a amarrou, a amordaçou e retalhou seu rosto. Os cinquenta mil pesos que lhe deixou cobriram o hospital, mas não uma cirurgia plástica.
Depois que as feridas cicatrizaram, o único emprego que ela conseguiu encontrar foi no quarto dos fundos de um bar portuário, atendendo marinheiros por vinte pesos. A maioria deles estava muito bêbada para perceber a máscara de cicatrizes que agora era seu rosto.
Ela sentia saudades do velho distrito de Mabini, da diversão e da emoção, da segurança e do dinheiro e, acima de tudo, de Dan.
As sombras, com as quais ela costumava dividir as calçadas de Mabini, sentiram sua aproximação e compreenderam seu tormento. Muitas mulheres dali amavam clientes que não as amavam de volta ou ainda que precisavam retornar a seus países prometendo voltar no ano seguinte e quase nunca cumprindo. Sentindo a afeição de Dan pela memória de uma Lin Lin de um ano atrás, as sombras se perguntavam: poderia ele amar a mulher que estava indo ao seu encontro?
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Bachelor's degree - UFMG
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Years of experience: 12. Registered at ProZ.com: Oct 2008.
Freelance translator, editor and proofreader since 2011, graduating in Translating Studies in 2015 and avid learner!
I work with translation (English to Portuguese), proofreader and editor. I've worked for a lot of companies such Delloite, TinyCo, Samsung, Konami, Demand, wikiHow and Netflix.
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