1
00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:04,450
Odile Marchetti: This is The Long Vowel. I'm Odile Marchetti.

2
00:00:04,500 --> 00:00:10,150
Teodor Halvorsen: And I'm Teodor Halvorsen. One word, one guest, under three minutes.

3
00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:18,350
Odile Marchetti: Today's guest is Amparo Lezcano, a conference interpreter in Valencia. Amparo, what did you bring us?

4
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:26,750
Amparo Lezcano: Sobremesa. Sobre means over, or on top of, and mesa is the table. So, literally, over the table.

5
00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:28,950
Teodor Halvorsen: That sounds like a tablecloth.

6
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:39,850
Amparo Lezcano: It sounds like furniture, yes. But it is time. It's the part of a meal that starts when the food is finished and nobody gets up.

7
00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:41,750
Odile Marchetti: How long does it last?

8
00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:56,850
Amparo Lezcano: That's the thing: there is no rule. After a Sunday lunch at my grandmother's, it could go on until it was dark. Coffee, then a little glass of something, then somebody's cousin arrives and the coffee starts again.

9
00:00:56,900 --> 00:00:58,650
Teodor Halvorsen: So it's not dessert.

10
00:00:58,700 --> 00:01:08,850
Amparo Lezcano: No, dessert is still the meal. Sobremesa is what happens when the plates are pushed to the middle and the conversation becomes the main course.

11
00:01:08,900 --> 00:01:11,950
Odile Marchetti: And you would notice if it were missing.

12
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:20,850
Amparo Lezcano: Oh, immediately. If people stand up right after the last bite, it feels like the lunch was a meeting.

13
00:01:20,900 --> 00:01:26,950
Teodor Halvorsen: You interpret for a living. What do you do when the word comes up in a speech?

14
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:37,950
Amparo Lezcano: I don't translate it. I describe it. Something like, the long conversation after a meal. It's correct, but it's flat. It's like explaining a joke.

15
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:40,850
Odile Marchetti: Have you seen it happen anywhere else?

16
00:01:40,900 --> 00:01:57,850
Amparo Lezcano: I once worked a week in Helsinki. On the last day, after lunch, nobody moved. Somebody made more coffee. Nobody called it anything, but it was a sobremesa. The word was missing; the thing was there.

17
00:01:57,900 --> 00:02:01,650
Teodor Halvorsen: Is it disappearing? People eat at their desks now.

18
00:02:01,700 --> 00:02:13,050
Amparo Lezcano: In offices, maybe. But at the weekend it is very alive. My nephews eat in twenty minutes on a Tuesday and then sit for three hours on a Saturday.

19
00:02:13,100 --> 00:02:15,450
Odile Marchetti: So the word protects the time.

20
00:02:15,500 --> 00:02:21,450
Amparo Lezcano: I think so. When you have a name for something, it's harder to give it away.

21
00:02:21,500 --> 00:02:24,050
Teodor Halvorsen: Amparo Lezcano, thank you.

22
00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:31,250
Odile Marchetti: And thank you for listening. That was sobremesa. The next word is from Japanese.