Little crabs called Nicolas?

[Lu]

Reading - actually translating - Sanmao, I came across a sentence that's mystifying me.

 

Throughout the book, Sanmao presents herself as playful and jokey, while depicting her husband 荷西 as more stern and prone to anger (but still much beloved). Now, Sanmao and 荷西 are at the seaside, catching seafood. She's gathering crabs and eels and such on the beach, while he went into the ocean to spear fish (he's a diver).

 

荷西上岸来时，腰上串了快十条大鱼，颜色都是淡红色的。
“你看，来不及拿，太多了。”我这时才知道贪心人的滋味。

荷西看了我的大螃蟹，又去捉了快二十个黑灰色的小蟹。他说，“小的叫尼克拉斯，比大的好吃。”
潮水慢慢涨了，我们退到崖下，刮掉鱼鳞，洗干净鱼的肚肠，满满的装了一口袋，我把长裤脱下来，两个裤管打个结，将螃蟹全丢进去，水桶也绑在绳子上，就这样爬上崖去。那个周末初次的探险，可以说满载而归。

 

小的叫尼克拉斯: what can he mean by that?? 'The little ones are called Nicolas'? But why? Quoting all the 上下文 to show that this isn't explained before or after, as far as I can tell. I tried searching for the relevance of the name 'Nicolas' and for crab species called Nicolas, but haven't been able to turn up anything. I'd kind of get it (childish joke) if Sanmao herself had said this (although her jokes are usually easier to understand), but it's a bit out of character for 荷西.

 

Thanks for anyone who can shed some light on this.

[Guest123]

It might be a kind of joke. I found this on the Net:  https://flipboard.com/@29qi4gl -

a sort of magasine online by someone called 尼克拉斯小螃蟹

[roddy]

It does look like it's the name of a type of crab, but perhaps misheard / misremembered? Maybe if you know where they were you can track down native species and see if that helps.

 

But if you've already spent enough time on it, I'd probably just skip it. 

[Geiko]

There's a Spanish song called "El cangrejo Nicolás", by Torrebruno. It was a children's song, very famous during my parents' childhood, so I guess José knew it.

Edit: there seems to be some inconsistency, because the song I mention is from the 80's and José died in 1979, maybe the lyrics are based on an older version or a folk song? However, I was born in the 80's and never heard or watched Torrebruno, I would have said it was a song from the 60's/70's.

[Lu]

Edita, thanks, but the problem with recent internet stuff is that I can't be sure they weren't named after this very scene (Sanmao is pretty famous).

 

Roddy, they're at the coast of the Western Sahara. I suppose I could try, but haven't had much luck so far finding species of crab named Nicolas.

 

Geiko, OMG that might be exactly what I'm looking for. Are you Spanish yourself, and if so could you perhaps ask some people around you whether that song was known in the 1970s? I'll also see if I can find some Spaniards to ask them.

 

Still open to any other information, if anyone has it.

 

Edited to add: this story takes place between 1973 and 1975. It first appeared in a magazine, and the book it appears in was published in 1976.

[Geiko]

Sure, I'll try to find more info about this!

[Geiko]

Lu, I think I've got it! I was obsessed with the Nicolás thing, but she describes these crabs as "small and black", and then I realised, she must have meant "nécoras", ie, a velvet crab / fluwelen zwemkrab, which is black and medium sized, and highly appreciated in Spanish cuisine (that's why José says these are better than the others). And 'nécora' definitely sounds like  尼克拉斯. 

[roddy]

Man, I love this site sometimes. 

[lips]

It's from the game 神魔大陸.

http://youxi.zol.com.cn/shenmo_db/1044/detail39889.html

[陳德聰]

When I searched Western Sahara crab species earlier the first hit was for velvet crabs

[Lu]

Geiko this is awesome. Thanks so much, I would never in a million years have figured that out.
 
And now I shall have to think long and hard on how to translate it, taking into consideration whether Sanmao knew Jose meant 'necoras' and not 'Nicolas' (possibly, she spoke Spanish), whether her readers realised Jose wasn't naming the crab Nicolas (highly unlikely, her readers had no way of knowing the Spanish name of a Western Sahara crab), and how much Dutch readers should understand. I suppose I'll go with 'Die kleintjes heten nécoras' ('those small ones are called nécoras), exotic enough to be as confusing as the original while it's still understandable what he might mean by it.