Literary figures

El narrador testigo is the narrator who reports only what was seen, and el testigo on its own does two more jobs that English keeps well away from each other. It is the witness — in a courtroom, at a wedding, on a contract. And it is the baton in a relay race, the tube handed from one runner to the next, so pasar el testigo is what we say as « to hand over the baton », used of a retiring minister exactly as we use it. There is even a third: el testigo de la gasolina is the warning light on a dashboard. One word for the person who saw it, the object that is passed on and the lamp that tells you — all three are there to prove something happened.