# Prenderla alla lontana



## MayaRomin

Salve a tutti!

Sono in crisi per la traduzione di un dialogo che utilizza forme idiomatiche.

Il contesto: due persone discutono, una di esse rinfaccia errori passati fatti dall'altra persona, ricordando eventi avvenuti molto tempo prima.
Il dialogo è il seguente: 

A: «Non ti sembra di prenderla un po' troppo alla lontana?»
B: «Va bene! La prenderò più da vicino» ribatto.

Il mio tentativo:

A: «Don’t you think you’re approaching it in a roundabout way?»
B: «All right! I'll approach it much closer then» I retort.

In questo modo però non sono certa di aver dato correttamente il senso di lontano/vicino (gioco di parole).
Le due persone sono ventenni britannici, avrei quindi bisogno di una traduzione tipicamente British.
Grazie mille in anticipo per il vostro prezioso aiuto.
MR


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## baldpate

Perhaps ...

B: «All right! I'll be more direct then» I retort.


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## Odysseus54

Magari anche "All right!  I'll go straight to the point, then"

I am not sure about BE, though...


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## MR1492

Odysseus54 said:


> Magari anche "All right!  I'll go straight to the point, then"
> 
> I am not sure about BE, though...



I think a more colloquial version would be, "All right!  I'll get straight to the point, then!"

Phil


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## Odysseus54

MR1492 said:


> I think a more colloquial version would be, "All right!  I'll get straight to the point, then!"
> 
> Phil



Thanks.


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## MayaRomin

"All right! I'll get straight to the point, then!" suona molto bene!
Deduco quindi che la prima parte (prenderla alla lontana), tradotta come "Don’t you think you’re approaching it in a roundabout way?", andasse bene, confermate?
Grazie mille!
MR


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## MR1492

MayaRomin said:


> "All right! I'll get straight to the point, then!" suona molto bene!
> Deduco quindi che la prima parte (prenderla alla lontana), tradotta come "Don’t you think you’re approaching it in a roundabout way?", andasse bene, confermate?
> Grazie mille!
> MR



I think both are good and sound quite natural.

Phil


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## You little ripper!

MayaRomin said:


> "All right! I'll get straight to the point, then!" suona molto bene!
> Deduco quindi che la prima parte (prenderla alla lontana), tradotta come "Don’t you think you’re approaching it in a roundabout way?", andasse bene, confermate?
> Grazie mille!
> MR


Another option might be the British expression to go (all) round the houses.

_Don't you think you're going all round the houses? http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/go-all-round-the-houses
Alright, I'll get straight to the point!_


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## MayaRomin

Grazie ad entrambi! In effetti il suggerimento di YLR! è davvero interessante!
MR


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## UnaVidaReal

MayaRomin said:


> Deduco quindi che la prima parte (prenderla alla lontana), tradotta come "Don’t you think you’re approaching it in a roundabout way?", andasse bene, confermate?


L’unico problema che vedo io è che la traduzione non ha niente che esprima “un po’ troppo”. “Prendere qualcosa alla lontana” si traduce con “to approach something in a roundabout away”, però la frase originale dice “prenderla *un po’ troppo* alla lontana”.

Una traduzione più precisa, quindi, sarebbe qualcosa come “Don’t you think you’re approaching it in a way that is a little too roundabout?” Questo suona abbastanza forzato, lo ammetto.


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## You little ripper!

MayaRomin said:


> In effetti il suggerimento di YLR! è davvero interessante!


Maya, it might be an idea to wait for a British poster to confirm whether it's the sort of thing a twenty-year-old from the UK would say. Can you also tell us what part of the UK the girls are from?


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## johngiovanni

MayaRomin said:


> una di esse rinfaccia errori passati fatti dall'altra persona, ricordando eventi avvenuti molto tempo prima.



"Don't you think that's raking things up?"  ("Rake up" : phrasal verb - talking about unpleasant or embarrassing things that happened in the past, especially when you would prefer them not to).

"OK! I'll stick to what's happening now," I retort.


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## Odysseus54

O magari 

"Aren't you taking the long (pronounced laaauuung  ) way 'round ?"


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## You little ripper!

_"Aren't you beating around the bush?"
_
Beat around the bush - Idioms by The Free Dictionary

Also, *beat about the bush*. Approach indirectly, in a roundabout way, or too cautiously. For example, _Stop beating around the bush - get to the point_.



johngiovanni said:


> "Don't you think that's raking things up?"  ("Rake up" : phrasal verb - talking about unpleasant or embarrassing things that happened in the past, especially when you would prefer them not to).
> 
> "OK! I'll stick to what's happening now," I retort.


John, that might better describe the situation, but it's not translating the Italian sentence.


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## johngiovanni

You little ripper! said:


> John, that might better describe the situation, but it's not translating the Italian sentence.



I agree!


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## MayaRomin

YLR!  the girls are from London.
Per rispondere a UnaVidaReal, non si potrebbe dire "A: «Don’t you think you’re approaching it *too much* in a roundabout way?»?
Grazie!
MR


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## UnaVidaReal

MayaRomin said:


> non si potrebbe dire "A: «Don’t you think you’re approaching it *too much* in a roundabout way?»


Direi di sì. Non mi suona del tutto naturale, ma senza dubbio è più conciso di quello che ho suggerito io.


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## Pdstelle

johngiovanni said:


> "Don't you think that's raking things up?"  ("Rake up" : phrasal verb - talking about unpleasant or embarrassing things that happened in the past, especially when you would prefer them not to).
> 
> "OK! I'll stick to what's happening now," I retort.



I agree with you, JohnGiovanni.

This is the real sense of "prenderla alla lontana" here: 
*rinvangare il  passato.*


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## MayaRomin

Quindi, se considero la frase nel senso suggerito (i.e. rinvangare il passato), posso quindi scrivere: "*Don't you think you're digging up too much*?"
MR


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## You little ripper!

_You're an archaeologist! You love digging up the past!_


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## Pdstelle

MayaRomin said:


> Quindi, se considero la frase nel senso suggerito (i.e. rinvangare il passato), posso quindi scrivere: "*Don't you think you're digging up too much*?"MR



" To dig up means:
to find information  by searching
carefully.
Not the same meaning: the information in the text is well known (sadly).


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## johngiovanni

"_Dredge_ up the past", though, means:  "If someone dredges up a damaging or upsetting fact about your past, they remind you of it or tell other people about it."  (Collins)


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## MR1492

Pdstelle said:


> *rinvangare il passato.*



If this is what "prenderla alla lontana" means, then JG has given a great answer.



johngiovanni said:


> "_Dredge_ up the past", though, means:  "If someone dredges up a damaging or upsetting fact about your past, they remind you of it or tell other people about it."  (Collins)


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## Pdstelle

MR1492 said:


> If this is what "prenderla alla lontana" means, then JG has given a great answer.



This is the meaning only in this context, to be exact!


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## Odysseus54

You little ripper! said:


> _"Aren't you beating around the bush?"
> _
> Beat around the bush - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
> 
> Also, *beat about the bush*. Approach indirectly, in a roundabout way, or too cautiously. For example, _Stop beating around the bush - get to the point_.



I had thought of that - actually I posted and then deleted, but I don't think it's a good one.  "Beating etc." means, If I get it right, trying to avoid the main point/s by, well, beating around the bush.  "Prenderla alla lontana" means to approach a subject from a far past - say I am trying to explain to you today's Italian politics and I choose to start from say the civil wars before Augustus.  That would be "prenderla alla lontana".  

What complicates matters is that here we have been given a specific context that in part deviates from this meaning, in my opinion.  

Based on the context, you could even say "You are *not* beating around the bush, are you?", meaning "Man, you are ripping me to shreds, what's the matter with you etc."

It's all a bit off, between the text and the context, the way I speak Italian, at least.


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## Pdstelle

Actually,  " prenderla alla lontana" means:

_Dire molte cose prima di entrare nel vivo del discorso, della questione 

Prenderla alla lontana > significato - Dizionario italiano De Mauro
_
So, in another context,
_Beating around the bush _
would be an appropriate solution.
Please see below:

"Invece di rispondere direttamente alle domande della giornalista, però, l'ospite si era dilungato su altri temi. Prendendo la questione troppo alla lontana, aveva iniziato a parlare addirittura delle Brigate rosse in Italia".

Cosa vuol dire "Prendendo la questione troppo alla lontana"? | HiNative


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## johngiovanni

Pdstelle said:


> This is the meaning only in this context, to be exact!





Pdstelle said:


> So, in another context,
> _Beating around the bush _
> would be appropriate.



In a nutshell, I think that's the problem.
Or, as Od said, "What complicates matters is that here we have been given a specific context that in part deviates from this meaning, in my opinion."

In the specific context, "raking up / dredging up the _past_", seem appropriate, but the "prenderla alla lontana" could be "beating around the bush", "going all round the houses - or, just to throw another one in, - "going all round the Wrekin" in Midlands UK dialect, the one I grew up with in Staffordshire:
 "All around the Wrekin" or "Running round the Wrekin" is a phrase common in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, the Black Country, Birmingham, to mean "the long way round",
See: The Wrekin - Wikipedia


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## Odysseus54

Yes, that's exactly the way I understand it, if you read my post.  But here we have a different situation :  "due persone discutono, una di esse rinfaccia errori passati fatti dall'altra persona, ricordando eventi avvenuti molto tempo prima."

He is not beating around the bush, he is getting at the other guy starting from 20 years ago - it's the opposite of beating around the bush, in my opinion.  The hostile criticism *is* the matter, and he is jumping right at it with a vengeance.


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## UnaVidaReal

Odysseus54 said:


> He is not beating around the bush, he is getting at the other guy starting from 20 years ago - it's the opposite of beating around the bush, in my opinion.


I completely agree. When I was writing my first reply I couldn't understand why the Italian phrase was so inconsistent with the context. When I first considered the original phrase, I saw "prendere" and "alla lontana" and, considering the context, I thought it meant, "Don't you think you're taking this a bit far?" In other words, "Don't you think it is extreme and unfair to throw my past mistakes in my face like this?" Then B responds with a play on words equivalent to something like, "OK, I'll take it closer then," meaning, "I talk about the mistakes that you've made more recently."

I'm not claiming that this is the correct translation. It is, however, an interpretation that makes more sense with regard to the context.


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## johngiovanni

Odysseus54 said:


> He is not beating around the bush, he is getting at the other guy starting from 20 years ago



Quite! Raking up /dredging up the past.


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## MayaRomin

Salve a tutti,
A scanso di equivoci, vorrei chiarire (visto che il dialogo l'ho scritto io stessa) che intendo proprio quanto affermato da UnaVidaReal nel suo ultimo post (i.e. B sta rinfacciando errori fatti tanto tempo fa e A si arrabbia, B quindi le dice che si sarebbe limitato a quelli più recenti).
Posso quindi considerare *Raking up /dredging up the past* come corretti?
Grazie,
MR


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## Pdstelle

UnaVidaReal said:


> I completely agree. When I was writing my first reply I couldn't understand why the Italian phrase was so inconsistent with the context. When I first considered the original phrase, I saw "prendere" and "alla lontana" and, considering the context, I thought it meant, "Don't you think you're taking this a bit far?" In other words, "Don't you think it is extreme and unfair to throw my past mistakes in my face like this?" Then B responds with a play on words equivalent to something like, "OK, I'll take it closer then," meaning, "I talk about the mistakes that you've made more recently."
> 
> I'm not claiming that this is the correct translation. It is, however, an interpretation that makes more sense with regard to the context.



"Don't you think it is extreme and unfair to throw my past mistakes in my face like this?"  is the correct explanation,
but it is not an idiomatic expression and the translation would not be faithful to the original 100%.

This is why you get the best results working in pairs, where one translator fully understands the meaning of the source language while the other can express it at its best in the target language.


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## johngiovanni

MayaRomin said:


> Posso quindi considerare *Raking up /dredging up the past* come corretti?


I think it follows from what I have said already that this is my interpretation, even if it's not a faithful rendition of the original Italian sentence in the OP.
Perhaps I should leave it at that.


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## Tellure

Per non farci mancare niente...

Esiste anche "prenderla da lontano":

*lontano
*
fig., _rifarsi da_ o _di l_., _prenderla da l_., in una narrazione, incominciando da fatti molto anteriori nel tempo. 
lontano in Vocabolario - Treccani


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## johngiovanni

That's really interesting, Tellure.  "Prenderla da lontano" would seem to fit the context much better than "prenderla alla lontana".


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## Odysseus54

Tellure said:


> Per non farci mancare niente...
> 
> Esiste anche "prenderla da lontano":
> 
> *lontano
> *
> fig., _rifarsi da_ o _di l_., _prenderla da l_., in una narrazione, incominciando da fatti molto anteriori nel tempo.
> lontano in Vocabolario - Treccani




Yeah - 'alla lontana' can contain the idea of avoidance - not necessarily, but activated by the proper context.  It is also a more generic adverbial expression ( 'parenti alla lontana', for instance ).

'Da lontano' only means 'from a distance' - you are starting from way back in time, or from the first causes etc.  

I agree with JG - this would have been a better match to the meaning/context the OP has in mind, in my opinion.


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## King Crimson

I've always heard and used "prenderla larga" or "prendere (qs) alla larga" (here), not "prenderla alla lontana", which sounds a bit odd to my ears.
We also have a thread on prenderla larga, although not so developed as this one.


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