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O Guarani 3.78 · 3.78

The office of a spy

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— Está me parecendo que a vossa habilidade de observador levou-vos muito longe, e que estais fazendo nem mais nem menos do que o officio de espião.

“It's beginning to seem to me that your talent as an observer has carried you too far, and that you're doing neither more nor less than the office of a spy.”

Word by word

Estáesh-TAIt ismemeto meparecendopa-re-SEN-dooseemingquekethataathevossaVO-sayourhabilidadea-bee-lee-DA-detalentdedeasobservadorob-ser-va-DORan observerlevou-vosle-VOH-vooshhas carried youmuitoMWEEN-tooverylongeLON-zhefar,eeeandquekethatestaisesh-TAISHyou arefazendofa-ZEN-doodoingnemnenneithermaismaishmorenemnennormenosME-nooshlessdodoothanquekethat / whichoootheofficioo-FEE-see-ooofficededeofespiãoesh-pee-OWNa spy.

The setting

“It's beginning to seem to me that your talent as an observer has carried you too far, and that you're doing neither more nor less than the office of a spy.”

A note on this passage

Álvaro names it at last: spy. The euphemisms — ‘observer,' ‘gift,' ‘pastime' — collapse into the plain, insulting word. It is a deliberate escalation, a slap that dares Loredano to answer for what he has been doing.

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