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Errrrm... Milo, that's not Spanish, neither contemporary nor sixteenth-century. Since you found the English translation, how about giving us the real original Spanish? I've tried a quick search, but no luck.
I'd preliminarily have to say that the choice of an old word like "jury mast" by this translator seems a good choice for sixteenth-century Spanish, if that's what s/he was translating in the first place.
EDIT: I've just remembered my Nigerian flatmate used to say "the doofer" when he meant "that thingamajig". I know a "doofer" is something else, but this was his usage.
Last edited by Marianna; 01/17/07 04:40 PM.
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Oh heck, Marianna, can't yall just accept my authority on these matters so we can move on to things more current? No? Well, ok, I've sent an email to Martin Dugard who wrote The Last Voyage of Columbus asking him for the pre-translated words of Fernando's quotation. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm reading from an advance copy of The Last Voyage of Columbus that hasn't been edited. Hey! I've got another great idea! I'll write Benjamin Keen of New Brunswick, NJ, who translated The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by Fernando Colon and ask him. If I can find his email address.   Too late. Mister Keen died four years ago. His book (translation) was completed in 1992. Now what?
Last edited by themilum; 01/17/07 08:48 PM.
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Ok, now we are making progress. From the net... [Fernando wrote a biography of his father, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, in about 1538. The biography was written in part to rebut some false stories about Columbus that had been published in Spain in 1537. It is not known what happened to Fernando's manuscript after his death, but it ended up in Venice, where it was translated into Italian by the Spaniard Alfonso Ulloa, and published in 1571.] So let's see... "A jury mast was constructed from one of the lateen yards and partially braced with ropes and timbers" machine translates into Italian as... Un albero jury è stato costruito da uno del lateen le iarde e parzialmente rinforzato con le corde ed i legnamiwhich translates back into English as... "A tree jury has been constructed from one of lateen the iarde and partially reinforced with the ropes and the lumber" Hmmm? No help there. 
Last edited by themilum; 01/17/07 09:47 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, the book in question (and in Italian) can be easily found on the web. In the last chapter, we find: Nel quale, avendo avuto buontempo fin quasi al terzo del Golfo, fummo assaliti un dì da sì terribile fortuna, che la nave fu in grande pericolo. E il dì seguente, che fu il sabato ai 19 d'ottobre, essendo già bonaccia, e noi in riposo, l'albero si ruppe in 4 pezzi, ma il valore del Prefetto e l'ingegno dell'Ammiraglio, il quale non si levava dal letto per la gotta, vi trovarono rimedio, facendo un piccolo albero di un'antenna, e fortificando la metà di quella con corde e coi legnami dei castelli di poppa e di prora, le quali disfacemmo. Ci si ruppe poi in un'altra fortuna la contramezzana, e all'ultimo piacque a Dio che così navigassimo 570 leghe: nel fin delle quali giungemmo al porto di Sanlúcar di Barrameda, e quindi in Siviglia, dove l'Ammiraglio riposò alquanto dei travagli patiti. The phrase in question is facendo un piccolo albero di un'antenna, e fortificando la metà di quella con corde e coi legnami which roughly translates as making a small mast from a yard, and strengthening its middle with ropes and lumber.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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It's slightly annoying that if babelfish.altavista.com can't translate a word it leaves it unchanged and doesn't notify you in any way that there was a problem, e.g. jury in the Italian and lateen in both were probably not translated at all. I wish it would show untranslated words in a different color or something.
I also wish it would attempt to translate words that are missing diacriticals. Living in Texas and California, "accent-less" Spanish text is everywhere, but Babelfish won't translate it. I have asked several Spanish speakers if they could come up with word pairs that only differ in this way. It seems uncommon enough that it would be worth "guessing" (the only one I can think of ATM is sí = yes/si = if).
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Thank you Faldage for that fascinating reference. And, for me, the mystery is solved!! 
"I am certain there is too much certainty in the world" -Michael Crichton
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Hmm.
zmjezhd your argument is damning.
The only query left to answer is this...
If "facendo un piccolo albero di un'antenna, e fortificando la metà di quella con corde e coi legnami" roughly translates as making a small mast from a yard, and strengthening its middle with ropes and lumber.
What then is a translation that is not rough?
Last edited by themilum; 01/18/07 09:05 PM.
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