Polish-English Translation competition #9 (closed)

Aug 19, 2010 29 Comments by

The heat(ing) is on, the new President has been sworn in, holiday period is drawing to a close. Life provides us with plenty of situations when we can we hear some drivel. To help deal with this and overcome the absurdities let’s tackle another dose of linguistic puzzles.

1. świrować – to go bananas (EM)
2. opowiadać duby smalone - to taletell (-)
3. wyzionąć ducha – to give up the ghost (Name)
4. opowiadać dyrdymały – talk bilge (Island1)
5. na haju – spaced out (Steve)
6. bujda na resorach – a cock-and-bull story (EM)
7. coś diabli wzięli – to go up in smoke (Island1)
8. trajkotać – to jabber (Steve)
9. w granicach rozsądku - within reason (Steve)
10. bez ładu i składu – without rhyme and reason (EM)

I’m sure the list above was compiled bez ładu i składu…

Enjoy anyway!

COMPETITIONS, Language, UNDERSTANDING POLAND

About the author

A student of economics from Warsaw, currently the only Pole behind Polandian. As an English-language freak he used to run bi-weekly Polish-English translation competitions. In his spare time Bartek writes on his more or less serious English-language blog - Politics, Economy, Society.

29 Responses to “Polish-English Translation competition #9 (closed)”

  1. Steve says:

    This is a virtually thoughtless reply based completely on Kompas, except for 5, where Miejski słownik slangu gave me the definition which Kompas translated ie non of my personal expertise.

    1. to go nuts
    2. to tell a fishy story
    3. to breathe his last
    4. to speak nonsense
    5. stoned
    6. rubbish
    7. something the devil took
    8. to jabber
    9. within reason
    10. in utter confusion

  2. Bartek says:

    The heating is off, the post was meant to be scheduled for yesterday (out of tradition competitions are published on Wendesdays), but I was off for two days and simply couldn’t even notice the post hadn’t come out. Apologies for the delay.

    Correct parts are:
    1. ‘to go’
    2. ‘story’

  3. Basia z Szwecji says:

    2. opowiadać duby smalone – talking tommyrot

  4. Basia z Szwecji says:

    Sorry, “story” should apparently be included…

    Hm, what about tommyrot for no. 4 instead?

  5. arturwarrior says:

    10. in a haphazard way

  6. Name says:

    3. to give up the ghost

  7. EM says:

    1. to go mad/lose one’s marbles
    4. to tell a tall story
    5. to be on a high
    6. complete baloney/ a cock-and-bull story

  8. EM says:

    2. to spin a yarn

  9. EM says:

    7. go down the drain
    10. no rhyme or reason / at loose ends

  10. EM says:

    3. draw one’s last breath

  11. Kasia says:

    1. to go off your rocker
    2. spin a story
    3. give up the ghost
    4. talk nonsense
    6. a tall tale
    7. (something’s) gone to hell
    10. no rhyme or reason

  12. Bartek says:

    Blimey, we have five out of ten phrases guessed

    No. 4 indeed starts with “talk”

    Quite possibly no. 5 will be the most difficult – ******-***

  13. PMK says:

    1. go crazy
    2. to tell made up things; to spin a yarn; to fib;
    4. to tell made up things; to jabber (gibber jabber); gibberish;
    5. get high; get wasted; wrecked;
    7. something is lost/gone, like an idea or a plan, for example, literally: devils took it

  14. Jeannie says:

    To go a step further, the new President (capital P); and “Wednesday.”

    • Bartek says:

      Thanks Jeannie, moving on ;)

      • island1 says:

        I disagree. ‘President’ is usually only capitalised when mentioning a specific president (e.g. ‘President Komorowski,’ or ‘the President of the Republic of Poland,’ but ‘Poland’s president’ or ‘Komorowski was sworn in as president’) and even this is far from universal—it depends on in-house style rules.

  15. Basia z Szwecji says:

    What’s Jeannie’s comment refering to?

    I was laughing when I looked up “na haju”, and saw it means “get high” (alt. feel happy and free). I can’t get used to how english expressions are transformed for polish use. :-D But what synonym is Bartek looking for?

    • Bartek says:

      Jeannie – pointed at errors in the post and my first comment. But I still don’t know if ‘president’ shoudl strat with capital letter.

      na haju – AFAIK it means under influence of drugs and unaware of what is going on around.

  16. Steve says:

    1. go bonkers
    2. weave a story
    4. talk gobble-de-gook
    5. spaced out

    • Bartek says:

      hints:

      1. go, but not bonkers (although it’s correct too), also starts with ‘b’
      2. it’s one verb
      4. talk, the second word consists of five letters
      7. ** ** ** *****

  17. EM says:

    1. to go broken?

  18. EM says:

    4. to talk out of your hat / to talk out of the back of your head

  19. EM says:

    1. go bananas

  20. Steve says:

    4. Talk trash

  21. Bartek says:

    hints – let’s reveal some letters

    2. to t***t****
    4. to talk *i*g*
    7. to go ** in **o**

    now I believe we’re a step away from closure.

  22. island1 says:

    4. talk bilge?

    7. up in smoke?

  23. island1 says:

    I demand a response!!

    • Bartek says:

      Treat updating the post as a response – you are one of the winners!

      And I demand somebody finally guesses opowiadać duby smalone is ‘to taletell’, because I want to close this round!