I celebrated International Translation Day yesterday by trying a Spanish version of Fran’s poem! My Spanish isn't really up to the task of rhyming - but I had a go. I managed it OK a coupla times (usually by sacrificing the metre, ha) but the rest of the time I settled for a sort of vague assonance :-)

Things I noticed:
Line 3 – translated word-for-word, it woulda been really long; so I found a way to shorten it that I think works OK (Literally, “I came home; his empty wardrobe left me stunned”)

Line 8 – I coulda used the more normal verb “amancebarse” (to live together), but I think “vivir en concubinato” has the same florid, slightly tongue-in-cheek flavour of “live in sin”.

The “he picks his nose” line – I so liked the snappy internal rhyme of “nose/clothes” that I had to try and get a rhyme in - so I had to change the meaning.“Marear la perdiz”– literally “to make the partridge dizzy”– is a funny idiom that means a combination of mucking others around, stalling/time-wasting when you should be doing something important, and not getting to the point or getting on with stuff. It's a bit of a stretch but hey, I tried :-)

Last line – I completely ignored the “bloody”, cos swearing in another language is the quickest way to sound silly (well OK maybe not the quickest, but…) I'd love to know what someone with decent Spanish would say for this.
vik x

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