Là où Attila passe, la concurrence trépasse
English translation: "Resistance is futile"
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| 09:58 Nov 21, 2014 |
| French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings / Transaltion of French expression | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: John Holland France Local time: 03:20 | ||||||
Grading comment
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| Summary of reference entries provided | |||
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| "Le pont" par Laurent Van Wetter |
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| Discussion entries: 8 | |
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Answers
1 hr confidence: 
Where Attila treads, the competion dreads. Explanation: As Francis says "Grass never grows again where my horse has once trodden." The text is online - it's about a business (hence "the competition"). It needs to rhyme. Reference: http://books.google.ie/books?id=Ib5JesHWmMcC&pg=PA22 |
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2 hrs confidence:
Mess with Flashman and you're history Explanation: Or… dead meat I think Flashman is probably more relevant (and amusing) to the target audience than Attila the Hun (who, incidentally, is not totally unknown to us), but would of course retain "Attila" if there is any particular reason to (not mentioned in the context) I've tried to find a pithy rhyme, but so far, they have all been corny. I'll keep on looking…! A few other suggestions (sorry, no nice rhymes!, although the first one does boast a half rhyme) Cross Flashman’s path and breathe your last Nobody challenges/gets in the way of Attila/Flashman/[…] and lives to tell the tale Whoever crosses […] had better watch out/watch their back You don’t cross Attila/Flashman and survive Whoever thinks they can get the better of Flashman is a fool Fools rush in where angels fear to tread Attila/Flashman destroys anything that gets in the way/stands in his path |
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4 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1look on my works, ye mighty, and despair Explanation: See the discussion box for context. The tone of the speech is bombastic, so I think this literary reference would work perfectly. It's from Shelley's poem Ozymandias, and its the inscription on the broken statue of an ancient king lying in the desert. The idea is that he was all-powerful in his time, but now he's forgotten. I think an educated audience would get this. Even if they didn't know precisely where the reference came from, they would recognise it. |
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20 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
peer agreement (net): +2"Resistance is futile" Explanation: Your question suggested this answer. "Resistance is futile" is a catch phrase from the television show Star Trek, The Next Generation See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)#.22Resistance... The phrase has been used in many other contexts. For some examples, see: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ResistanceIsFutil... The Urban Dictionary gives a meaning that is somewhat reminiscent of the "Atilla" who appears in the source. From http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=resistance is... : "Also used by a victor just after having utterly crushed an opponent." As Carol notes in the discussion box, it's hard to know whether this is the right register based on the information you've given. It's one possibility, in any case. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2 hrs (2014-11-21 12:10:47 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Thanks to DLyons, here is some more context from the source at his link: "... Entre directeurs, la solidarité est le ciment de la réussite. Ensemble, nous marchons comme un seul homme. Derrière moi. Vers un seul but : la défense de nos valeurs ! Unis comme les doigts de ma mains, nous parlons d'une seul voix, le regard fier tourné vers l'horizon. Et tel un soleil naissant, le logo de l'entreprise s'élève dans les airs pour illuminer le monde. En avant ! Là où Attila passe, la concurrence trépasse !" That actually does sound a bit like the Borg collective in Star Trek... It really depends on what else is going on in the text, for example if the figure of Atilla comes up elsewhere and so needs to appear here, etc., and on the desired register. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2014-11-21 14:41:23 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- I actually think each of the answers proposed so far could work. It's a matter of who the character speaking is: his age, his background, but also who he thinks he is, what effect he's trying to have, that kind of thing. It's really hard to make a judgment on that without knowing more about the story. |
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4 hrs confidence:
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3 days 15 hrs peer agreement (net): +1 |
| Reference: "Le pont" par Laurent Van Wetter Reference information: http://voir.ca/scene/2004/09/30/le-pont-de-laurent-van-wette... 23 pages are available online if you add the book to your Google Library |
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