Spanish term
United States
24 years of experience in many countries
Native in: Spanish 
Works in: English to Spanish, Spanish to English, English to French, and 6 more.
Ratones que merodeaban por toda parte.
This is from the story about The flautist of Hamelin.
Here is the full paragraph:
en el próspero pueblo de Hamelín, en Alemania, sucedió algo muy extraño: una mañana, cuando sus gordos y satisfechos habitantes salieron de sus casas, encontraron las calles invadidas por miles de ratones que merodeaban por todas partes, devorando con mucha ansia el grano de sus repletos graneros y la comida de sus bien provistas despensas.
Sep 8, 2021 08:10: changed "Kudoz queue" from "In queue" to "Public"
Sep 8, 2021 10:11: María Perales changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Yvonne Gallagher, Adoración Bodoque Martínez, María Perales
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Proposed translations
Rats scurrying all around
| Thanks a lot. |
United Kingdom
Flair and accuracy tailored to your text
Native in: English
Works in: Spanish to English, German to English
Rats marauding everywhere
| Thanks Oliver. |
| agree |
Orkoyen (X)
23 mins
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Thanks
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Rats running amok
| Thanks a lot. |
United Kingdom
experienced and well qualified linguist
Native in: English (Variant: UK)
Works in: Spanish to English, English, Spanish, and 3 more.
rats which were roaming all around
| Thanks for your help Lisa. |
Rodents lurking everywhere
So is it rats or mice?
Thus quoth wikipedia:
"The legend dates back to the Middle Ages, the earliest references describing a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_Piper_of_Hamelin
Perhaps whoever created the Spanish version should have read Umberto Eco's "Mouse or Rat" first...
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Note added at 23 hrs (2021-09-09 07:58:10 GMT)
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FWIW, Australia is currently suffering from a plague of mice:
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/mice-plague-easte...
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Note added at 23 hrs (2021-09-09 07:59:24 GMT)
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Rats may not prowl, but they certainly lurk (and scurry)...
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Note added at 1 day 53 mins (2021-09-09 09:03:41 GMT)
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"Eco's theme in this book is that translation (particularly literary translation) is a "negotiation" between what you might call the 'letter' and the 'spirit' of the original. For example, the book's title refers to Eco's attempt to translate the scene in Hamlet where Hamlet stabs Polonius behind a curtain, saying "How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!".
Eco says he translated 'rat' as 'topo', which in Italian actually means mouse, because they don't really have a word that means 'rat' in the same sense. Of course, this misses the wordplay of 'rat' as someone who is a betrayer."
| Thanks for your help Neilmac. |
| neutral |
Andrew Bramhall
: Do rats " lurk", though?// Well, perhaps when they gather on street corners looking to mug a gang of field mice.
12 hrs
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