# l'arroseur arrosé



## essoufflee

Qu'est-ce que cette phrase veut dire?

Ex.: Pour convaincre, le ministre lance un site de dialogue, téléchargement.com, in auguré en grande pompe au Palais de Tokyo, le 22 février. Très vite, c'est *l'arroseur arrosé*: les partisans de la license globale fondent en piqué sur le site pour dire tout le mal qu'ils pensent de son projet de loi.

I get the idea that it has something to do with the plan backfiring and having the opposite effect as that intended. Is there a phrase in english that can express this phrase?

Merci!

*Note des modérateurs : *nous avons fusionné plusieurs discussions pour créer ce fil.


----------



## radjane dessama

he gets a dose of his own medicine
_or_ _if you want to get bibilical_ :  he has fallen in the ditch that he dug for others
_if however you wish to go the Shakespearean way _:  he is hoisted by his own petard


----------



## Kat LaQ

We also have the expression: "the tables were turned".


----------



## orlando09

I saw this phrase for the first time this week - the context was that Paris mairie is tired of men peeing on walls in the streets and is trialling a new kind of wall surface which sprays the urine back at the person in question...


----------



## vegangirl

J'ai traduit cette phrase en anglais. Vous pouvez corriger les fautes s'il vous plaît ?

phrase : C'est l'histoire de l'arroseur arrosé.
traduction : It is the retribution.

Stanley se moquait tout le temps de Thelma. Maintenant, c'est au tour de Thelma de se moquer de Stanley. C'est sa vengance. Storm est paparrazi et Theobald est acteur. ll suit partout Theobald et il le prend en photo. Maintenant, Theobald est devenue paparazzi et il suit partout Storm et il le prend en photo.


----------



## Padraig

_It is retribution_ (without _the_).

For an equivalent colloquialism, you could use _the biter bitten_.


----------



## Gil

> the boot is on the other foot (British & Australian, American)
> if you say that the boot is on the other foot, you mean that a situation is now the opposite of what it was before, often because a person who was in a weak position is now in a strong position. In the past, we had great influence over their economy, but the boot is on the other foot now.


Source: there


----------



## david314

Dear Gil, we commonly say: _The *shoe* is on the other foot._


----------



## Gil

Merci.  Les dicos ne tiennent pas toujours compte de la mode.


----------



## avaiki

In Australia, there is a phrase "pissing in the wind ..." which is probably the closest to the sprinkler sprinkled , )


----------



## Wopsy

But the register is quite different, so they aren't the same; the French phrase isn't vulgar.


----------



## JiPiJou

"L'Arroseur arrosé" :

And it is also the title of one of the first films ever made (by Louis Lumière in 1895). It illustrates precisely the prase. It was shown in a Paris café and, at the time, sent people roaring with laughter. Nowadays it appears mainly as a landmark of what people believed would remain an attraction among others in amusement parks.

[ ... ]


----------



## Keith Bradford

radjane dessama said:


> ..._if however you wish to go the Shakespearean way _: he is hoisted by his own petard


 
Not exactly. The quote is from Hamlet (isn't it always?): 
_For 'tis the sport to have the enginer_
_*Hoist with his own petar*_​meaning "cause the bomb maker to be blown up with his own bomb" and possibly a pun on the French _peter_.

Another option which maintains the sentence structure of the French is "_*The biter bit*_".


----------



## Aoyama

> it is also the title of one of the first films ever made (by Louis Lumière in 1895).


very true.
I would go along with Shakespeare and some other solutions but I don't see how


> "pissing in the wind ..."


could 





> probably [be] the closest to the sprinkler sprinkled


or am I missing something (on/in Australian English) ?


----------



## JiPiJou

To keep the Australian level of register, there is also the US phrase :"When the shit hits the fan" (for example, to describe the financial crisis) = "ça va chier dans le ventilo".

But for _*essoufflee*_'s quote, we need something of a higher level ! "The government's plan backfired", perhaps... 

(which is what _*essoufflee *_suggested initially ...)


----------



## Aoyama

> :"When shit hits the fan"


 ( "ça va chier dans le ventilo").
Right, but shit and fan are a bit far from water and sprinkler ...
This means "when problems pile up at an incredible height" ...


----------



## elianecanspeak

Aoyama said:


> "When shit hits the fan"( "ça va chier dans le ventilo").
> Right, but shit and fan are a bit far from water and sprinkler ...
> This means "when problems pile up at an incredible height" ...


This American image is more that the shit hits the fan and is spattered on anyone near it.  
As the WR dictionary defines it: 
"when the disastrous consequences of something become known.
– origin OE _scitte_ ‘diarrhoea’, of _Gmc_ origin.


----------



## Aoyama

> "when problems pile up at an incredible height" ...
> 
> 
> 
> "when the disastrous consequences of something become known".


quite close ...


----------



## edwingill

"it's a case of the biter being bit"


----------



## Juju333

He got married to her because she said she was rich, only to find out 2 days into their marriage that she was out of money. L'arroseur arrosé.

Comment dit-on "l'arroseur arrosé" en anglais dans ce contexte?


----------



## moustic

From the WR dictionary:


*c'est l'arroseur arrosé* _expr_ ([qqn] pris à son propre jeu)the boot is on the other foot now _expr_  it's a case of the biter bit, now the biter is bit _expr_


----------



## Topsie

*It's the biter bit*


----------



## broglet

"The biter bit" is more appropriate for a failed act of aggression leading to a returned act of aggression.  Not quite right here. The boot is on the other foot doesn't quite work either, for similar reasons.
In the current context we have an act motivated by greed failing, as far as that motive is concerned, but without the intended 'victim' doing anything in return, or indeed necessarily having any awareness of the motive.
A possible equivalent:  " ... he then discovered she was out of money.  That must have rather punctured his bubble!"


----------



## Topsie

broglet said:


> ... In the current context we have an act motivated by greed failing, as far as that motive is concerned, but without the intended 'victim' doing anything in return, or indeed necessarily having any awareness of the motive. ...


Unless she lied about about being rich deliberately, knowing that he wouldn't marry her otherwise!


----------



## Laurent2018

D'autres développements ici:

Tel est pris qui croyait prendre.


----------



## moustic

Maybe: _...his plans went awry_.


----------



## broglet

There is also  "he was hoist by his own petard" which means " ... blown up by his own bomb" but I'm not sure it's quite right here for the reasons I gave earlier


----------



## Chimel

Juju333 said:


> He got married to her because she said she was rich, only to find out 2 days into their marriage that she was out of money. L'arroseur arrosé.
> 
> Comment dit-on "l'arroseur arrosé" en anglais dans ce contexte?


Pour moi, ce n'est pas un très bon exemple "d'arroseur arrosé" parce qu'il n'y a pas l'idée d'un retournement de situation: sa stratégie a simplement échoué (il ne devient pas riche), mais elle ne se retourne pas contre lui.

Pour parler d'arroseur arrosé, il faudrait plutôt imaginer par exemple que la femme avait des dettes et qu'à la suite de ce mariage, il devient donc lui-même endetté au lieu d'être riche: il est lui-même victime du plan qu'il avait imaginé.

Dans ce contexte, je pense que le plus judicieux est de traduire par "his plans went awry" (donc aussi une simple idée d'échec, sans retournement de situation), comme le suggère Moustic.


----------



## broglet

je suis d'accord Chimel - ma suggestion #4 marche aussi "it punctured his bubble"


----------



## wildan1

broglet said:


> "it punctured his bubble"


In AE we would say the more alliterative _That burst his bubble._


----------



## ain'ttranslationfun?

'his plan backfired', 'it blew up in his face'.

 for "That burst his bubble.", but I think that'd be more likely to refer to someone's disillusionment than to the situation turning out opposite to what they'd been scheming.


----------



## broglet

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> 'his plan backfired', 'it blew up in his face'.
> 
> for "That burst his bubble.", but I think that'd be more likely to refer to someone's disillusionment than to the situation turning out opposite to what they'd been scheming.


But the situation didn't turn out to be the opposite of what he'd been scheming.  He wanted to benefit from her riches.  There is no suggestion that she benefited from his riches.  In the current context his hopes had been dashed, not reversed.


----------



## Laurent2018

Mais...non seulement il ne deviendra pas riche (1) mais en plus il est marié à une femme qu'il ne désirait pas (2).
En terme de renversement de situation, je trouve que "arroseur arrosé" est même fortement édulcoré, non?


----------



## Graine de Moutarde

Maybe you could say "that'll teach him" or "that serves him right"?


----------



## Juju333

Yes thanks I definitely could add that but that doesnt really have the same meaning as "l'arroseur arrosé". There is a sense of teasing to it (if that makes any sense ^^)


----------



## Juju333

Oh, just came to my mind! Can i say:

"He got married to her because she said she was rich, only to find out 2 days into their marriage that she was out of money. The irony."

????


----------



## Graine de Moutarde

That could work, JuJu333.  

Though "serves him right" is often said sarcastically, for what it's worth. But maybe, to make your suggestion a bit more teasing, you could say "That is what you'd call _irony_."


----------



## Juju333

Thank you Graine de Moutarde


----------



## Juju333

By the way, "a sense of teasing to it" is ok to say ? Just so I know


----------



## ain'ttranslationfun?

Perhaps we could say "It/That served him right."? Or maybe even "He got no less* than he deserved."?
*Or "no more"? I'm not sure which works better.


----------



## Graine de Moutarde

I think it was fine, JuJu333.


----------



## Laurent2018

Yes GdM, or simply "such an irony!" (I can see the writer's smirk !!)


----------

