# Danish: kæden er hoppet/sprunget af



## Havfruen

Konteksten er sangen "Ikea" af Thomas Holm. teksten

Spørgsmålet handler om de linjer:

_Men kæden den sprang først for alvor af
Da du ville op og se
På legetøj og børnemøbler
Et sted på første sal_

fra den danske ordbog:
 "kæden er hoppet/sprunget af:                          OVERFØRT           et forløb, et foretagende el.lign. er gået i stå eller har udviklet sig uheldigt"

Hvad kommer udtrykket af? Stemmer det fra en cykelklæde eller noget ældre? Jeg er ikke klar over, hvad "overført" skal sige? 

Tak for ideer


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## piccando

Overført betyder i denne sammenhæng, at det er billedtale - en metafor.
Kæder brugt til kraftoverførsel i mekaniske kontruktioner er meget ældre end brugen af cykelkæder, men i dag forbinder de fleste nok billedet med cykler. Jeg kan ikke finde oplysninger om hvornår udtrykket er blevet almindeligt i det danske sprog.


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## Havfruen

Tak! Nu forstår jeg det med overført. Selvfølgig har du ret, at mekaniske kæder er ældre end cykler. Denne metafor findes ikke i engelske, så vidt jeg ved.


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## Sepia

Hvilken vending ville du bruge paa engelsk? (Nu, hvor du har forstaaet, hvad der menes).


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## Havfruen

Well it doesn't exist as a fixed idiom in English, and I wasn't trying to make a translation so much as understand the Danish thoroughly. That being said, it's a good metaphor.

I would render "_kæden er hoppet/sprunget af_":
The chain went slack.
The chain broke.
The chain fell of the sprocket. 
The chain disconnected / disengaged from the gears.

Here's a picture: what would we say if the chain on this wasn't functioning properly? http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindebro


My try to translate: 
"_Men kæden den sprang først for alvor af
Da du ville op og se
På legetøj og børnemøbler
Et sted på første sal""_

The chain (driving their relationship) went slack under strain 
When you wanted to go look
At toys and baby furniture
Somewhere on the first floor


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## Sepia

Havfruen said:


> Well it doesn't exist as a fixed idiom in English, and I wasn't trying to make a translation so much as understand the Danish thoroughly. That being said, it's a good metaphor.
> 
> I would render "_kæden er hoppet/sprunget af_":
> The chain went slack.
> The chain broke.
> The chain fell of the sprocket.
> The chain disconnected / disengaged from the gears.
> 
> Here's a picture: what would we say if the chain on this wasn't functioning properly? http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindebro
> 
> 
> My try to translate:
> "_Men kæden den sprang først for alvor af
> Da du ville op og se
> På legetøj og børnemøbler
> Et sted på første sal""_
> 
> The chain (driving their relationship) went slack under strain
> When you wanted to go look
> At toys and baby furniture
> Somewhere on the first floor




Thanks, but that I could have figured out for myself.

I was actually asking for suggstions for a good translation not of the words of the metaphor, but of its meaning.


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## Havfruen

So you want an English metaphor with similar meaning? I'll have to think about that.


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## nsv

Imagine a picture of the inside of a persons head whose brain activity is illustrated by a lot of wheels and gears and sprockets rotating and driven by a chain. When that chain breaks or falls off the person starts doing strange things. 
The expression is hardly more than some 25-30 years old, however, "kæden faldt af" has always described the real situation when a bicycle chain falls off. Back in the old days, when bicycles had only one pedal activated rear wheel brake, this could lead to dangerous or at least embarrassing situations.
"Filmen knækker" is used in the same situations.

NSV


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## Magb

I'll suggest "the wheels came off" as a translation. It has roughly the same meaning, and as an added bonus it's taken from the same semantic domain.


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## Sepia

Havfruen said:


> So you want an English metaphor with similar meaning? I'll have to think about that.




  Yes, that is exactly what I am after.

Like when I say "I am riding shotgun ..." it makes no sense to tell anything about "haglgevaerer" in the Danish translation. You'd rather say "jeg er med som vagthund ..."


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## Havfruen

Of course when a different metaphor exists in another language for the same concept, we shouldn't directly translate the metaphor. However in this case, I couldn't think of an equivalent metaphor in English for the Danish phrase in question. This is part of why it piqued my interest. 

I think Magb's suggestion is good. Apparently, we have both "the wheels came off" and "the wheels fell off". From the Urban dictionary, I find two possibilities: "_the wheels fell off the wagon_"  denotes romantic or sexual connotations and "the wheels fell off the bus"  could refer to a project or a relationship. These are not things I have ever said but I guess I would have understood them. If anyone knows other alternative  English metaphors, I'm all ears...

I do love the image of "jeg er med som vagthund".


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