Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

Die Natur läßt sich biegen, aber nicht brechen

English translation:

The infinite flexibility of nature

Added to glossary by Katy L Dean
Oct 19, 2016 11:12
7 yrs ago
1 viewer *
German term

Die Natur läßt sich biegen, aber nicht brechen

German to English Marketing Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
This is being used in an advert that I have been asked to translate, showing a picture of a woman (who may be a Paralympic athlete) doing a yoga pose. The advert itself is supposed to encourage people to donate blood.

I'm unsure what the saying itself means first of all - I then need to decide if we have a similar saying in English and whether this would be appropriate in this context.

I was wondering if it was something like 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks'/'you can't teach your grandmother to suck eggs' or a 'leopard never changes its spots' - none of which would then be appropriate for this advert.

All help gratefully appreciated :)
Change log

Oct 19, 2016 11:16: writeaway changed "Field" from "Other" to "Marketing"

Discussion

Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 21, 2016:
I feel the more literal translation would be Lesley’s suggestion "The laws of nature can be bent, but not broken" - I actually also came up with this option myself before posting the thread, but my agency client wasn't happy with the suggestion as they felt it didn't go well enough with the image. For another context, that option would be better imho
Björn Vrooman Oct 21, 2016:
Best exemplified here:
"Die Natur läßt sich biegen, aber nicht brechen. Wenn die Natur rechts will, so gehe du nicht links."
https://books.google.de/books?id=hVx9AQAAQBAJ&pg=PP5&lpg=PP5...

It's closest to the "laws of physics" example. It's not a statement about how much "flexibility" there is in nature, but that there is no escape from the "nature of the beast." Think "instincts."
Björn Vrooman Oct 21, 2016:
Hello Katy,

I'm sorry. However, in reply to your glossary entry and your comment "it may be useful for another translator in the future," I'd have to add:

I've tried to explain the use of the phrase in this particular context. If this is about general usage, the answer you chose - which may work fine in your context (which is why I didn't agree or disagree anywhere) - is completely off base, in my opinion. The alternative suggestion "People can do all sorts of things" is even worse.

See the other examples from the link below:
"Natur ist mehr denn (überwindet) Gewohnheit. Natur gehet vor Kunst. Natur läßt sich nicht ändern. Natur ist Meister. Natur geht vor Lehre. Die Natur läßt sich biegen aber nicht brechen."

Or here under "Artem natura superat sine vi sine curà":
https://books.google.de/books?id=oyh6y6bzkW0C&pg=PA490&lpg=P...
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 21, 2016:
Thanks Bjorn - yes, a little late, but interesting nonetheless - it may be useful for another translator in the future.
Björn Vrooman Oct 21, 2016:
@Katy Although I'm probably too late here, there's a book that includes the proverb under the subheading:
"Ist die Gewöhnung stärker oder die angeborene Natur?"
https://books.google.de/books?id=BPPbBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA317&lpg=P...

The closest I can come up with in English is:
You can bend but not break the laws of physics.
Don't try to break the rules, but bend them.

Close to Lesley's answer. Has little to do with celebrating "flexibility," though.

Based on Alison's link:
Dank innerer Stärke wieder im Gleichgewicht -> "innere Stärke" refers to the blood donated

Mein Punktsieg im Spiel des Lebens -> "Punktsieg" refers to one more time you escaped death (by getting a blood transfusion)

Die Natur läßt sich biegen, aber nicht brechen -> "brechen" refers to the importance of blood donations despite the many technological advances

Agree with my colleagues that the pictures seem to be a bit misleading. Physical disability isn't the main issue, as far as I can tell.
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 20, 2016:
I completely agree with Paul that the client should have provided much more background information - in fact, I did advice the agency of this when the job was offered. Tbh, this is not the sort of job this agency usually takes, so is probably why they were out of their depth. They even originally wanted to pay me simply the 'word' rate!! I have another client who specialises in this area, and they always provide much more information. Thanks for all the comments - they have been very useful. I ended up sending them a selection of options (some suggested here and a couple of my own)
Paul Cohen Oct 19, 2016:
The feel-good factor & 'celebrate' diversity I think that hits the nail on the head.
Lancashireman Oct 19, 2016:
Phil: "Complete rewrite" I think the five offerings below pretty much conform to that approach. Can we perhaps agree that the best option will not necessarily incorporate the word 'nature'?
philgoddard Oct 19, 2016:
I agree with Paul - it doesn't sound like a very good campaign, unless it works better in German than in English.
Will this ad definitely be used, or is it just for information? A lot of the ads I translate are just ad agencies showing off their work. If it's going to be used, I think it needs a complete rewrite.
So is it just the headline, the picture of the woman, her blood group, and the words Swiss Red Cross? Does it not even say Give Blood?
Lancashireman Oct 19, 2016:
It's the feel-good factor, Paul Nowadays, we 'celebrate' diversity, and that obviously includes disability.
Paul Cohen Oct 19, 2016:
@Lancashireman I'm a bit slow sometimes. Could you explain how, in your view, the phrase "Dank innerer Stärke wieder im Gleichgewicht" (with the photo of a one-legged woman doing yoga) is supposed to encourage people to donate blood? I don't see the connection between the image, the text and the blood campaign. Mind you, my critiscim is not of you, Andrew, but of the campaign, which I find very eye-catching but not very effective because it seems to lack clarity.
Lancashireman Oct 19, 2016:
In Alisons' link... "the yoga woman has Dank innerer Stärke wieder im Gleichgewicht"
So Pauls' interpretation of the campaign as a whole does not necessarily change the message conveyed by the image you are looking at.
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 19, 2016:
Ah ok, so it was what I thought originally - they have benefited from blood donations, rather than given blood themselves
Paul Cohen Oct 19, 2016:
The idea behind the campaign From p. 5 of the PDF of the 2015 annual report that Alison found online:

"Auch dieses Jahr treten wir wieder mit einem Leitmotiv öffentlich auf: Es geht dabei um Mitmenschen, die dank der modernen Medizin von Krankheiten und Verletzungen geheilt sind und oft im Rahmen ihres Heilungsprozesses auf die Gabe von Blutprodukten angewiesen waren. Die Bilder von strahlenden Menschen, die teilweise für ihr Leben gezeichnet sind, sollen den gesunden und unversehrten Menschen Mut machen, mit ihrer Blutspende zur Genesung von Patienten beizutragen."

So the focus is on people who wouldn't be alive today if they had not received a blood transfusion.
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 19, 2016:
Thanks, yes, please do
Alison MacG Oct 19, 2016:
I have come across the 2015 Annual Report for an organisation using adverts and phrases like these. The basketball one is there, but the Natur quote we are discussing has been placed with an image of an athlete wearing a blade on one leg. Meantime, the yoga woman has Dank innerer Stärke wieder im Gleichgewicht.

I can post a link if Katy agrees.
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 19, 2016:
Thanks, that makes sense - I had kind of assumed that they had benefited from blood donation (i.e. were still alive today because of blood donation), but the other way of looking at it makes more sense.
Lancashireman Oct 19, 2016:
"There are two adverts..." ... with maybe more to come, making a series? The consistent message is that, if disabled people can overcome adversity and manage to be blood donors, what's your excuse as an able-bodied person.
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 19, 2016:
The blood type of the person is also shown on the image - that's the only copy I have.
philgoddard Oct 19, 2016:
Is there any other copy? I don't understand the connection between the woman doing yoga and giving blood.
Lancashireman Oct 19, 2016:
Pure resilience Unfortunately, this seems to have already been trademarked - by a yoga consultant: http://www.pureresilienceyoga.com/
Katy L Dean (asker) Oct 19, 2016:
There are two adverts, one shows a man in a wheelchair with a basketball, saying "Mein Punktsieg im Spiel des Lebens" and the other shows a woman who I think is missing the bottom part of one leg, doing a yoga pose, saying 'Die Natur läßt sich biegen, aber nicht brechen', so I think you are definitely on to something with the message being about human resilience.
Lancashireman Oct 19, 2016:
*may be* a Paralympic athlete This is crucial, because it would imply that the ad is more about the resilience of the human spirit than the laws of nature.

Proposed translations

+2
15 mins
Selected

The endless/infinite flexibility of nature

or: The flexibility of nature is endless/infinite

This is the sort of thing that instinctively comes to mind - it says roughly the same sort of thing as the German, and links with the picture (yoga = flexibility + Paralympians = "flexibility" of the human form, i.e. people can be successful whatever nature has bestowed on them).

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2016-10-19 12:13:06 GMT)
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Another option that comes to mind is simply "People can do all sorts of things" (because one can at least mentally complete that with "... including give blood").
Peer comment(s):

agree writeaway
22 mins
agree Ed Ashley : Based on the information we have, I like this suggestion
39 mins
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "This was one of the options I sent the client. However, I did also like lancashireman's suggestion (even though it may not be exactly what the German means - my agency client wanted to keep the idea of bending/flexibility in the English, because of the visual)"
10 mins

The laws of nature can be bent, but not broken.

This might fit in with the picture and the message...
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

I may bend, but I don't break[.]

English prefers the first person approach, phrasing this as a caption expressing the woman's indomitable will.
I think that any reference to 'nature' just detracts from the message.
The full stop at the end is optional.
Peer comment(s):

agree philgoddard : This is very good, even though I don't think the copy or the visual seem very relevant to the message.
4 hrs
disagree Rosa Paredes : I don't think it conveys the meaning. Sorry.
14 hrs
Hell hath no fury... http://www.proz.com/kudoz/3984221
agree Björn Vrooman : Cancelling out answer above. Site rule 3.3: A peer comment must be based on linguistic evaluations of the answer. I don't see any evidence of that.
2 days 19 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

I bend with (to) what nature gave me/Nature's gifts bend the rules

A wildly free translation, but with the context, it seems appropriate.
As to spending blood, this also occurred to me:

Give generously of what nature gave you
Something went wrong...
+2
6 hrs

It won't cost you an arm or a leg

No, this is not an accurate "translation" of the German. Instead, it’s my rather blunt American (i.e. undiplomatic) attempt to convey what could be the underlying message of the campaign: Donating blood won't cost you and arm or a leg, but it saves lives.

It always amazes me how companies and organizations can put so much time, energy and money into developing advertising campaigns and yet simply dump the job of "translating the untranslatable" into a translator's lap. Advertising agencies are paid a lot of money to come up with snappy slogans and captivating images. How much money does the translator get for the thankless task of coming up with a corresponding catchy phrase in another language? Pennies per word ... and often no guidance whatsoever for the translator as to the extensive decision-making process that went into the campaign. Absolutely mind-boggling.

Pictures of people missing limbs may be eye-catching, but if the message is muddled, the campaign is admittedly not very effective. In my opinion, this particular campaign is less about flexibility or the laws of nature and more about the life-saving measures (blood transfusions, etc.) that allowed people to survive horrific accidents and yet remain vibrant human beings (minus a limb or two, aber immerhin). At any rate, if the idea is to encourage people to donate blood, I see no reason why you can't spell it out.

Why the low confidence level, Katy? Because I doubt that you could hand in such a “translation” to the client without getting into hot water because it ignores all of the obvious “clever” plays on words with “bending” and “flexible” and instead goes in a completely different direction.

Okay, to be honest, I also just couldn't resist suggesting it.

But what do you have to lose? It won’t cost you an arm or a leg. ;-)

By the way, if the client insists that the message here is that we should admire the resiliency of the flexible and well-balanced one-legged woman in the photo, then you could always write something along the lines of the following:

First law of nature: you can’t keep a good woman down

And the connection to donating blood? Just as obscure as in the original! Then it becomes (merely) a celebration of diversity, or the "feel-good factor" (thanks, Andrew!) without directly pointing to the underlying message of “donate blood” ... which might just be the solution that the client wants.

Sorry this turned into such a novel. May the force be with you, Katy!
Peer comment(s):

agree Lancashireman : An agree for the perspicacity of your analysis. What a pity these two versions are unusable!
44 mins
Yes, (*sigh*), even nature and advertising have their limits.
agree Rosa Paredes : Fully agree with you. Saludos!
9 hrs
Glad to hear it, Rosa! Greetings from Greenland.
Something went wrong...
1 day 16 hrs

The lifeblood of survival

Suggests that perseverance is this woman’s lifeblood while reminding viewers that blood sustains life.
Something went wrong...
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