Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Spanish term or phrase:
tremenda candela
English translation:
there\'ll be hell to pay / he\'ll kill me / my life won\'t be worth living
Added to glossary by
SeiTT
Jan 4, 2015 09:12
9 yrs ago
3 viewers *
Spanish term
tremenda candela
Spanish to English
Art/Literary
Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
Chicano slang
Greetings
Re:
TV Show
Justified – United States, crime drama: S01E13.
There is a dialogue between Bo, a drug pusher, who has just lost a shipment of illegal narcotics, and a Mexican-American.
Chicano: How you think it's gonna go for you when our uncle finds out you lost his shipment?
Bo: Not very well.
Chicano: Tremenda candela.
How can we translate this idiomatically? Is it the idea that the candle of someone's life is flickering, by any chance?
Simon
Re:
TV Show
Justified – United States, crime drama: S01E13.
There is a dialogue between Bo, a drug pusher, who has just lost a shipment of illegal narcotics, and a Mexican-American.
Chicano: How you think it's gonna go for you when our uncle finds out you lost his shipment?
Bo: Not very well.
Chicano: Tremenda candela.
How can we translate this idiomatically? Is it the idea that the candle of someone's life is flickering, by any chance?
Simon
Proposed translations
(English)
Proposed translations
+4
1 hr
Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
Works in field
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
34
Selected
there'll be hell to pay / he'll kill me / my life won't be worth living
since, according to the trusty Collins, "arrimar candela a align" means to give s.o. a tanning" (i.e., punishment), and this has "tremenda" added, then I think it needs to be fairly emphatic.
There are of course numerous ways of expressing this...
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Note added at 1 hr (2015-01-04 10:31:48 GMT)
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He'll have my guts for garters ...
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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-01-04 12:50:30 GMT)
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he'll beat the living daylights out of me
or even possibly, ...
it's curtains (for me)
There are of course numerous ways of expressing this...
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Note added at 1 hr (2015-01-04 10:31:48 GMT)
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He'll have my guts for garters ...
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Note added at 3 hrs (2015-01-04 12:50:30 GMT)
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he'll beat the living daylights out of me
or even possibly, ...
it's curtains (for me)
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Many thanks, super!"
5 hrs
Phoenix III
United States
United States
Native in Spanish
&
English
Works in field
United States
True words...
Native in: English (Variant: US) 
, Spanish (Variant: Latin American)
Works in: Spanish to English, Spanish, English, and 1 more.
Huge problem
"tremenda candela" it's a play on words for "huge fire" as in the house will go on fire. In this context it translates as there's going to be a huge problem/chaos. I don't suggest the word chaos because it will be totally out of place for them to use but a huge problem does fit.
6 hrs
Giovanni Rengifo
Colombia
Colombia
Native in Spanish
Works in field
Colombia
Traductores Oficiales Cali
Native in: Spanish
Works in: Spanish to English, English to Spanish, German to Spanish, and 2 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
12
he'll go ballistic
-
3 days 21 hrs
"The edge of a knife" or "The knife's edge"
You could answer it with something simple for a clear explanation of the feeling, but something with both the feeling of fear of the future and the use of an idiom, while maintaining clarity, I think would be best.
Example sentence:
The knife's edge.
On the edge of a knife.
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