No Puckering Up in Spanish

Randy Hecht, a bilingual colleague and friend, told me a funny story about an article she was doing. For this to make sense, you have to understand that sometimes she writes in English and sometimes in Spanish. She was actually trying to put something into Spanish about an experience she had in Mexico and needed to describe someone puckering his mouth, indicating that he wanted a kiss. But she didn't know the Spanish word for pucker. She checked one dictionary after another and couldn't find it. She checked with her extensive set of Latino friends and colleagues and finally, in a last bit of exasperation, checked with Edith Grossman, something that both of us have interviewed int he past and one of the leading Spanish to English translators in the world. (She's Gabriel Garcia Marquez's translator.) The upshot that there doesn't appear to be any Spanish word or phrase for puckering up. When Randy told me this, I started laughing, not only because it was funny on its own, but because I realized that there is also the English word purse, so we've got not just one, but two ways of visibly preparing for a kiss. Guess that in Latino parts of the world they just jump right in and don't waste time making funny faces and staring at each other.