# A genius is seldom orderly, an orderly person is rarely of genius.



## Aurin

*Geniale Menschen sind selten ordentlich, ordentliche selten genial.*
Kann dieses Zitat von Einstein jemand ins Englische übersetzen. Auch über die Übersetzung in jede andere Sprache würde ich mich freuen.

Versuch für Englisch:
Geniuses are rarely orderly, orderly rarely geniuses.


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## Jana337

One possible solution: A genius is seldom orderly, an orderly person is rarely of genius. 

If you want translations into many languages, I am moving this to Other Languages.


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## elroy

My suggestion for Arabic:

العبقري نادرًا منظم، والمنظم نادرًا عبقري

There may be another agreed-upon translation, though.


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## Outsider

Portuguese, one possible translation:

*Os génios raramente são organizados; os organizados raramente génios.*


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## Ilmo

*Finnish:*
*In singular:*
Nero on harvoin järjestelmällinen, järjestelmällinen ihminen on harvoin nero.
*In plural:*
Nerot ovat harvoin järjestelmällisiä, järjestelmälliset ihmiset ovat harvoin neroja.


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## Freston

Dutch:
Een genie is zelden ordelijk, een ordelijke is zelden geniaal


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## Vejrudsigt

Danish: Et geni er sjældent ordenligt; en ordenlig er sjælden genial.


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## mimi2

In Vietnamese*: Thiên tài hiếm khi thứ tự, mà người thứ tự hiếm khi là thiên tài.*


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## optimistique

Freston said:


> Dutch:
> Een genie is zelden ordelijk, een ordelijke is zelden geniaal



This sentence is not right in this way (an orderly genius is seldom a genius?). Why not keep close to the german original:

*Geniale mensen zijn zelden ordelijk, ordelijke zelden geniaal.*


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## gao_yixing

Chinese:天才很少是墨守成规的，墨守成规的人很难成为天才。
I think there are some better translations.


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## Freston

@Optimisque:
I stand corrected. But the OP and I had discussed the translation through PM, and I gave him an other translation than the one I posted here. One very close to your own. Let's call it 'progressional  wisdom '.  But another matter arose from than, namely don't you think it should be 'ordelijken'?
Because in the main sentence the subject is multiple (well, a bit of confusion comes from here, as it isn't in the threads title).

*Geniale Menschen sind selten ordentlich, 
*Geniale mensen zijn zelden ordelijk,*

ordentliche selten genial.*
ordelijken zelden geniaal

To change the adjective 'ordelijk' into a multiple noun we can't really do without the addition of '-en' in my opinion. Else, we would not be able to keep the multiple character of the finite verb 'sind/zijn/are' in the second clause.




Disclaimer: I may be wrong (applies always) and I might not use the English grammar terms correctly, although I checked.


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## Etcetera

The possible transation of this phrase in Russian can be like the following:
Гений редко бывает организованным человеком, но организованный человек бывает гением еще реже. 
A transliteration: G*e*nij r*e*dko byv*a*yet organiz*o*vannym chelov*e*kom, no organiz*o*vannyj chelov*e*k byv*a*yet g*e*niyem eschy*o* r*e*zhe. 
A nice phrase, by the way.


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## OldAvatar

A Romanian version would be:

Rareori vezi un geniu ordonat, aşa cum rareori o persoană ordonată poate fi un geniu.

Regards


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## Aurin

I add the Czech version someone told me. But I´m not sure if the spelling is correct.

Géniové jsou zřídka pořádní, pořádní lidé jsou zřídka génioré.


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## daoxunchang

What does "orderly" mean here? "keeping personal belongings in place" or "keeping strictly to social customs"?


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## Outsider

More the former than the latter, I would say, although the word itself can mean either.


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## daoxunchang

Then I have to differ in my choice of words from that of gao yixing.
Instead of 墨守成规, I choose 拘小节/一丝不苟


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## Aurin

daoxunchang said:


> What does "orderly" mean here? "keeping personal belongings in place" or "keeping strictly to social customs"?


 
The original is in German and I don´t know if orderly is the exactly translation. Other English words are: tidy, neat, un-cluttered...


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## desperate housewife

Italian version
I geni raramente sono persone ordinate, le persone ordinate raramente sono geni.


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## desperate housewife

Really, it doesn't seem so genial, as a sentence!! Maybe Einstein was very orderly...


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## coconutpalm

不扫一屋者扫天下 
bu4 sao3 yi4 wu1 zhe3 sao3 tian1 xia4.
Literally: the one who doesn't sweep his own room is to sweep the whole world.
I convert it from a famous ancient story:
----大丈夫志在千里，何以扫一屋？da4 zhang4 fu1 zhi4 zai4 qian1 li3, he2 yi3 sao3 yi4 wu1?
(The great man is ambitious. How can I confine myself to sweeping a small room?)
----一屋不扫，何以扫天下？yi4 wu1 bu4 sao3, he2 yi3 sao3 tian1 xia4?
(How can you sweep the world if you don't even sweep your own little room?)


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## Aurin

Thank you very much.
I got the Czech version, but I´m not sure if I reproduce it well.
*Géniové jsou zřídka pořádní, pořádní lidé jsou zřídka génioré.*


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## Whodunit

Aurin said:


> Thank you very much.
> I got the Czech version, but I´m not sure if I reproduce it well.
> *Géniové jsou zřídka pořádní, pořádní lidé jsou zřídka génioré.*


 
Looks fine to me, except for the last word. I would say "*génialní*," but a native speaker should have a look at this.


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## Jana337

Aurin said:


> Thank you very much.
> I got the Czech version, but I´m not sure if I reproduce it well.
> *Géniové jsou zřídka pořádní, pořádní lidé jsou zřídka géniové.*


Aaaaaah, I forgot to translate it for you. 

Whodunit is almost right: The correct spelling of the adjective is "geniální". "Géniové" is a noun.


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* Bir dahi nadiren emir eridir, bir emir eri nadiren dahidir.


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## rivei

coconutpalm said:


> 不扫一屋者扫天下
> bu4 sao3 yi4 wu1 zhe3 sao3 tian1 xia4.
> Literally: the one who doesn't sweep his own room is to sweep the whole world.


 
This remind me a Chinese saying: 成大事者不拘小节
cheng2 da4 shi4 zhe3 bu4 ju1 xiao3 jie2.
Literally: Successful people do not stick at trifle.


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## Whodunit

I thought I could try it in Latin:

*Homo magni ingenii raro ordinatus, homo magni ordinationis raro ingeniosus est.*

Of course, one could shorten it, but I like this verbose version much better than an incomprehensible ellipsis.


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## iyavor

In Modern Hebrew:

גאון לעתים רחוקות מסודר, ואדם מסודר לרוב אינו גאון

Gaon le'itim rehokot mesudar, ve'adam mesudar larov eino gaon...


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## suslik

In Estonian:
Geenius on harva korrapärane, korrapärane inimene on harva geenius.


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## GURB

les hommes de génie sont rarement comme il faut, les hommes comme il faut sont rarement des génies,OU: les génies sont rarement ordonnés, les gens ordonnés sont rarement des génies. ordentlich ist zweideutig!


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## Aftonfalken

My try:

Spanish: Un genio es raramente ordenado, y una persona ordenada es raramente genial

Swedish: Ett geni är sällan ordentligt, en ordentlig människa är sällan genial.


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## Tetina

In Greek is:
_*Μια διάνοια είναι σπανίως υπάκουη, ο υπάκουος σπανίως είναι μια διάνοια*._
= Mia diania ine spanios ypakui, o ypakuos ine spanios mia diania.

The 'orderly' here translated as obedient as i understood by the other's relevant questions.


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## Whodunit

Tetina said:


> In Greek is:
> *Ìéá äéÜíïéá åßíáé óðáíßùò õðÜêïõç, ï õðÜêïõïò óðáíßùò åßíáé ìéá äéÜíïéá*.
> = Mia diania ine spanios ypakui, o ypakuos ine spanios mia diania.


 
Somehow, your Greek text doesn't display well for me. Changing the encoding, it gives me:

_*Μια διάνοια είναι σπανίως υπάκουη, ο υπάκουος σπανίως είναι μια διάνοια*._


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## Tetina

Whodunit said:


> Somehow, your Greek text doesn't display well for me. Changing the encoding, it gives me:
> 
> _*Ìéá äéÜíïéá åßíáé óðáíßùò õðÜêïõç, ï õðÜêïõïò óðáíßùò åßíáé ìéá äéÜíïéá*._


 
Sometimes I have problems with my encoding that's why I write it in Latin as well. The text that you get is correct although.


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## ramen

Korean
My original attempt was 

천재적인 사람이 드물게 깨끗하지만 깨끗한 사람이 드물게 천재다

But I ran this past a native speaker because I wasn't sure about using the verb 깨끗하다 ('clean/tidy') for people rather than their belongings or whatever. She found nothing wrong with this, but preferred topic markers (은) over my nominative makers (이):

천재적인 사람은 드물게 깨끗하지만, 깨끗한 사람은 드물게 천재다
Chŏn-jae-jŏg-in sa-ram-ŭn dŭ-mul-gae ggae-ggŭt-ha-ji-man, ggae-ggŭt-han sa-ram-ŭn dŭ-mul-gae chŏn-chae-da
Genial people-TOPIC seldom toBeClean-PRESENT-SIMPLE-but, clean people-TOPIC seldom genius-PRESENT-SIMPLE
"Geniuses are seldom clean/tidy but clean/tidy people are seldom geniuses."


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## barbiegood

In Hungarian:

Egy zseni ritkán normális, egy normális ember ritkán zseniális.

Yet it carries a bit of a different meaning, because the real meaning would be that a genious is seldom a usual person (sane), meanwhile an avarage person is seldom a genius. Though I used the same word here "normális" - it both means sane and normal, as nothing unusual about it.

If I translate literary, it would sound like:

Egy zseni rikán rendes, egy rendes ember ritkán zseni, where "rendes" in the first case has something to do with being tidy and in the second part about being an avarage nice person.

Ok, i give up.


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## Nizo

An Esperanto translation:  _Geniulo malofte estas ordema, ordemulo malofte genia_.


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## mataripis

Tagalog: pambihira na sa isang Pantas ay may palagiang panuntunan, subali't may madalang na pagkakataon na isang mahilig sa ayos ay maihahanay sa mga pantas.   *Pilipino: Bihira na ang matalino ay masusukat sa pagiging maayos, pero hindi naman masasabing ang mapag ayos na tao ay nabibilang sa matatalino.


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