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German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / Redensart/Ausdruck/Sprichwort
German term or phrase:Alle Tage sind gleich lang, aber nicht alle sind gleich breit.
Hallo liebe Kollegen (damit sind ALLE gemeint ;-) ...),
ein Bekannter hat dies in seiner Signatur stehen und bat mich um eine englische Formulierung - da geht doch was, oder? :-) Der Satz lädt zum Gedankenwandern ein....
ich sage bewusst nichts (wie beim Publikumsjoker), und sage schon einmal "danke".
Explanation: this is a new entry after asker provided more context. Not sure if it sounds much better than "wide" but since I thought of it, here it is.
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all days share/have the same length, but all do not share/have the same elasticity ?! :)
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 17 hrs (2010-01-14 05:36:16 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
explanation: think of all 24-hour days as elastic bands with the same length. Now pull on 10 of them. Some will let you stretch/expand them and some won't. Not quite the same as "width" but still close to the original meaning IMO.
guys, this was sooooo hard... I know my friend has chosen a "length" "with" combination, but then again, he went for the literal translation (which had come to my mind forst to). I personally fond it soo hard to award points here because of the many good ideas and want to thank you!!!!! it is always so interesting to see what a seemingly "simple" phrase has in store for you :-)
thank you again, and please, I wish I could have graded various responses...
Daniela 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
HI, sorry, a bit late. my day was not "wide" enough ;-) what is meant that even though we all have 24 hours, we use them quite differently... some more efficiently than others and some days, even though they are equally long, just do not want you to succeed in utilizing their entire width ;-) now that in a 2-liner...
Jennifer, I agree that in "a big day" "big" can mean, great, important or significant. I just don't feel that we could use the comparative + "to be" (some days are bigger than others) for this meaning. But perhaps if your translation is cryptic people would puzzle about what it means and that would be intended......
It might also be a reference to this (where 'breiter' actually means drunk i. e. 'breit sein'). I wonder if the artist is the songwriter Udo Lindenberg (it would fit perfectly, must be him, looking at the picture ;-). http://www.zimmermann-heitmann.de/udo-lindenberg/Alle-Tage-s...
That's just what I was thinking, too and wondering about using "deep" instead. Since "lang und breit" means "at (great) length" so "detail" and "depth" might be the referred to...
Jennifer's link is persuasive, but I just don't get the meaning from that translation. What does it mean to say "wider" than others? What does the German "breit" convey to you, danilingua, in this context? "Wider" doesn't convey much of anything to me here. If it were "deeper" (more profound or more intense), then I'd get it. There's another version on the net, by the way, which is "Alle Tage sind gleich lang, aber unterschiedlich breit." For what it's worth. Good luck! A fascinating expression.
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
1 hr confidence:
One day is as long as any other. It's the width that varies.
Explanation: Just as an alternative. It's not an absolute thing, a translation like this...:-)
Edwin Miles Germany Local time: 01:29 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 12