# It was a beautiful dream, I wish I didn't have to wake up



## Grinch!

Hi everyone, this is something I'd like to tell to a Polish girl, could anyone please translate it for me to Polish?

"It was a beautiful dream, I wish I didn't have to wake up"

meaning that I enjoied being with her and that I'm sorry we had to stop seeing each other

Thanks
d


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## zaffy

Something like:
-To było jak piękny sen, który został przerwany.
-To było jak piękny sen, który się skończył.
-To było jak przerwany sen.
-Wielka szkoda, że ten sen się skończył.


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## Grinch!

Thank you so much, I think the first one is the one more similar to my sentence.


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## grassy

Grinch! said:


> Hi everyone, this is something I'd like to tell to a Polish girl, could anyone please translate it for me to Polish?
> 
> "It was a beautiful dream, I wish I didn't have to wake up"
> 
> meaning that I enjoied being with her and that I'm sorry we had to stop seeing each other
> 
> Thanks
> d



The sentence is incorrect. It should be _*I wish I hadn't had to wake up*_.


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## kloie

I wish i didn't have to wake up.


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## grassy

kloie said:


> I wish i didn't have to wake up.


It _was_ a beautiful dream. This means he did wake up.


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## elroy

grassy said:


> _*I wish I hadn't had to wake up*_.


  This sounds extremely awkward and I can't imagine a native speaker saying it. 


zaffy said:


> -To było jak piękny sen, który został przerwany.
> -To było jak piękny sen, który się skończył.
> -To było jak przerwany sen.
> -Wielka szkoda, że ten sen się skończył.


 Would a literal translation sound awkward/unidiomatic?


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## zaffy

elroy said:


> Would a literal translation sound awkward/unidiomatic?



We don't use the wish structure in Polish so you need to think of some different structures.


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## elroy

zaffy said:


> We don't you the wish structure in Polish at all.


 I'm not talking about the structure, but the meaning.  Surely there must be a way to express the _meaning_.  But you went for non-literal translations, so I was wondering if a literal translation would not work for some reason.


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## zaffy

no, the literal translation will never work and that's the reason why the Polish learners of English find the wish structure difficult.  Our structure works like your 'what a pity'. 

'I wish I had a dog' would be translated to something like 'What I pity I don't have a dog'. The latter sounds very Polish


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## elroy

Again, I'm not talking about the _structure_.  Let me rephrase my question in light of your last post.  Would "What a pity I had to wake up!" work?


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## zaffy

'What I pity I had to wake up' would sound very prosaic in Polish and the OP's words sound a bit poetic to me. So, 'przerwany sen' sounds much better than 'obudzić się'


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## Kotek

Grinch! said:


> Hi everyone, this is something I'd like to tell to a Polish girl, could anyone please translate it for me to Polish?
> 
> "It was a beautiful dream, I wish I didn't have to wake up"
> 
> meaning that I enjoied being with her and that I'm sorry we had to stop seeing each other
> 
> Thanks
> d


*
To był piękny sen, żałuję, że musiałem się obudzić* - if waking up refers to the past
*To był piekny sen, żałuję, że muszę się obudzić* - if waking up refers to the present or even future

I wouldn't say none of these:
-To było jak piękny sen, który został przerwany. -> It was like a beautiful dream which was stopped/interrupted etc
-To było jak piękny sen, który się skończył. -> It was like a beautiful dream which finished
-To było jak przerwany sen.
-Wielka szkoda, że ten sen się skończył.
All of the above sentences state the dream finished or was interrupted/stopped etc.
Whereas in the original sentence you emphasise that you had to wake, which makes difference, it's because you had to, not the dream itself was the cause of the change.

BTW: In Polish, of course, there is the same as "wish" which is tranlated as "żałować". Both _żałować _and _wish _express more or less the same as English _regret_. The difference is just the grammar structure following the words.


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## yezyk

Or:
To było jak piękny sen, z którego nie chciałbym się obudzić (if it still lasts and you do not want to wake up - It has been like a beautiful dream, and I would not want to wake up).


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## slideman

grassy said:


> The sentence is incorrect. It should be _*I wish I hadn't had to wake up*_.


"hadn't had to" is more British.  "didn't have to" (after a past tense, as here) is more US.  But as ever the US version is getting more common in UK.


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## Ben Jamin

Grinch! said:


> Hi everyone, this is something I'd like to tell to a Polish girl, could anyone please translate it for me to Polish?
> 
> "It was a beautiful dream, I wish I didn't have to wake up"
> 
> meaning that I enjoied being with her and that I'm sorry we had to stop seeing each other
> 
> Thanks
> d


In my opinion the following translation maintains the meaning and is idiomatic Polish enough:
To był piękny sen, szkoda, że musiałem się obudzić.

The meaning of the sentence is, however, a little tricky because it can be easily interpreted in a negative way.
"It *was *a beautiful dream", but it is not any more - so what happened? Why I had to wake up? Is there something wrong with the relation? Wasn't it real? Was it a deception?
I would rather say "It was a wonderful experience (to be with you), what a pity it couldn't last longer! To było cudowne przeżycie, szkoda, że trwało tak krótko!


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