The Cat Is as Lazy as the Dog
Prompt for Friday, May 3, 2024
El gato es tan perezoso como el perro.
This was a sentence in my Spanish language lesson today on Duolingo. I am doing pretty well with learning how to translate comparisons, but this sentence gave me pause because I could not remember the Spanish word for “lazy.”
Comparison is such a large part of writing, particularly in poetry. We have similes and metaphors, and these are often the parts of a piece that really stick in a reader’s brain long after they have stopped reading.
“Hope is the thing with feathers”—Emily Dickinson
“Her voice is a flowering tree struck by lightning”—Li-Young Lee
“Behind the house, the white iceberg of the barn.”—Diane Glancy
“Sure, I used to say his name like a truth”—Carl Phillips
“In dreams the origami of the brain/opens like a fist”—Sandra Cisneros
“All the world is a stage/All men and women merely players/They have their exits and entrances”—William Shakespeare
“the trees look like question/marks”—Victoria Chang
“This winter night is held /in silence as if a giant squid /fell upon the land and froze”
—Adrian C. Louis
For today’s prompt, I would like you to really dig into comparisons. Whether you do this with metaphor, simile, or even the ____ is as ______ as the _____ is up to you.
Visually? I admit, I have no clue how visual artists can express comparison. Maybe contrast would be a better challenge. I leave it them/you.
As always, have fun, do not stress, challenge yourself, and remember—deep breaths are always helpful, in any situation!
See you on Sunday!
You say THE word for lazy in Spanish. There are plenty of others: desganado, desidioso, vago, holgazán, indolente, negligente, haragán, dejado, apático, descuidado, remolón, gandul, bigardo, ganso. And that's without including Latin American words. Not all of them are applicable to cats though. :-)