# Croatian (BCS): press the metaphor



## sauge

Hello!
I have two sentences, one of which contains (I think) a sports metaphor and I don't know if I understand it well. Could you help, please?

The Empire went down swinging. To press the metaphor, it interrupted the final count of history time and again to rise from barbarian blows and fight the match to a draw and even to sustain an occasional victory.

*Carstvo je propalo sa stilom. Da nastavimo s metaforom, opetovano je prekidalo završno odbrojavanje povijesti da bi se uzdiglo nakon barbarskih udaraca i izborilo meč neriješeno pa čak podnijelo i pokoju pobjedu.

Thanks a lot!*


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## sokol

Well, you didn't get it quite in my opinion: "to press the metaphor" means that the metaphor has been "overstretched" on purpose to illustrate the point made, so it doesn't mean simply "to explain by metaphor" but "overdoing the metaphor".

In a way, to use "to press the metaphor" is something of an *excuse of the author* for overdoing the metaphor, or in more plain words: it is as if the author would say: "sorry for overstretching the metaphor but I think it helps to illustrate the point I'm making".

Your first sentence, "Carstvo je propalo sa stilom", however does not contain the first metaphor of "swinging" (and probably it would be difficult to find a good one for this in Croatian?!); so in your translation attempt you begin with the metaphor only in the second sentence: thus you could still leave your try at translation as it is, it would sound natural in Croatian - and also no essential meaning is lost. 

However, if you can find a way to express the English meaning (with some equivalent of "swinging" in the first sentence) which still sounds somewhat idiomatical it'd be preferable.


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## sauge

Thank you, Sokol.
What about: "Carstvo je  nezadrživo tonulo. Da pretjeramo s metaforom..."


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## sokol

sauge said:


> Thank you, Sokol.
> What about: "Carstvo je  nezadrživo tonulo. Da pretjeramo s metaforom..."


I like "pretjerati" in this context (you'll be the judge if it also sounds good to native speakers ), but I'm not quite happy with the first one: I think your first try, "Carstvo je prepalo sa stilom", is still better here. How would those combine, "Carstvo je prepalo sa stilom; da pretjeramo s metaforom ...", what do you reckon?


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## sauge

As the matter of fact, I have no idea. It was difficult to recognize the structure "time and again" in the first place, because "history time" seemed so appealing, except it didn't make any sense... 
Then, I found somewhere on the forum that "go down swinging" means "perish gracefully" and I took it for granted. But it doesn't. It means "you know you will probably fail, but you refuse to give up". So, I'm thinking Cyrano de Bergerac, I'm thinking Don Quijote, I'm thinking all the splendid contexts, but it hasn't dawned on me yet.
Carstvo nije propalo "sa stilom" carstvo je propalo... tvrdoglavo se boreći u unaprijed izgubljenoj borbi. Eh. Now I just have to say this exact idea in two words. Ok, three maybe.
Let's just hope that some good soul among native BCS speakers will be granted the divine touch of inspiration and... help me.

...bilo osuđeno na propast? Hm.


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## Duya

Sve metafore su iz boksa: _to go down swinging _je sokol objasnio, a onda se nastavlja sa _final count of history time_... pa _fight the match, _pa _draw..._

Ja ne vjerujem da bi se to dalo tako idiomatski prevesti u BCS, pa onda nema ni metafore s kojom bi se pretjeralo... vjerovatno je najbolje da izbaciš "press the metafor" u potpunosti.

Koprcati se? Evo mog pokušaja:

_ Carstvo je propadalo koprcajući se, pokušavajući da se otrgne neumitnom toku povijesti: svako malo bi pokleknulo pod naletima barbara, pa se ponovo dizalo, bilo nove bitke u kojima bi izborilo neriješen rezultat ili povremenu pobjedu...


_


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## sauge

Joj, hvala, Duya!
Ja sam mislila da su iz bejzbola... 

Hm. A "time and again"?


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## Duya

Ja sam "time and again" u svojoj rečenici preveo sa "svako malo"... a sličnih idioma u značenju "vrlo često" imamo dosta.


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## sauge

Thanks again!


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