ya sobre la sirena.

English translation: just as the siren went off

11:43 Feb 17, 2020

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature

Spanish term or phrase: ya sobre la sirena.

I am translating a poem from Spanish to English. The protagonist is on a train when she suddenly realises that it is her stop:

Desiré acelera y salta entre las puertas, ya sobre la sirena.

The phrase 'ya sobre la sirena' in this context is confusing me. Could it be 'just as the whistle blows', or something along those lines, or am I missing something else really obvious?

Thanks.

Martin Cosgrove (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 5 (1 open) Answers: 44 United Kingdom
Local time: 17:09

English translation:just as the siren went off

Explanation:
European trains have a wailing siren sound to alert passengers the doors are closing etc.

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Note added at 19 mins (2020-02-17 12:02:57 GMT)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_horn#Noise_from_train_ho...

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Note added at 23 mins (2020-02-17 12:07:33 GMT)
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I'm no expert, but "whistle" sounds rather old-fashioned to me, like from the steam engine era. In general they call them horns, although some of them are definitely very siren-like.

https://www.zedge.net/find/ringtones/train horn

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Note added at 25 mins (2020-02-17 12:09:09 GMT)
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I'm not sure where I've heard it, it may have been on the Barcelona metro, but it's definitely a siren, sounds like someone treading on a bag of cats :-)

Selected response from:

neilmac
Spain
Local time: 18:09

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just as the siren went off

neilmac

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17 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

just as the siren went off

neilmac
Spain
Local time: 18:09
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 155

Grading comment

Thank you!

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks. It's what I thought, and as I've decided to localise the poem, I've gone for 'just as the whistle blows'.

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English translation: just as the siren went off

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