One of my favorites is from Las Amigas by Carlos Fuentes:
“No, aquellos eran los tiempos jóvenes. Éstos son los viejos tiempos, Archibald.”
It means, “Those weren’t old times. These are the old times, Archibald.” (Which is sort of true if you think about it, or you might just twist yourself up in knots, which is what I did when I tried to write something to explain how it is true. That’s kind of why I like the quote though. It sort of illustrates one of my other favorite literary quotes:
“No hay prisión menos explicable que la de las palabras” which is from _Quizá nos lleve el viento al infinito” by Torrente Ballester. “There’s no prison less explainable than that of words”. Wow, that translates really badly. Take from it what you will.
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