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who’d out drew ya

English translation: who'd drawn his gun before you'd drawn yours

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22:08 Dec 11, 2011

English to English translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature

English term or phrase: who’d out drew ya

what does this phrase mean?
its from a song called Hallelujah:

Well maybe there’s a god above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who’d out drew ya
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not someone who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah

thank you very much!

vierama KudoZ activity Questions: 7 (1 open) Answers: 125
Local time: 04:09

English translation:who'd drawn his gun before you'd drawn yours

Explanation:
Refers to the usual sort of confrontations in Westend where two opponents face each other and the one who draws first usually kills the other.

Correct English would be "who had out-drawn you".

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Note added at 11 hrs (2011-12-12 09:22:40 GMT)
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in Westerns, not Westend

Selected response from:

Jack Doughty
Local time: 03:09

Grading comment

thank all of you, including stephanie ezrol.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +5

who'd drawn his gun before you'd drawn yours

Jack Doughty

4 +2

who had drawn his/her weapon first

Jenni Lukac

who had outdrawn you

Kim Metzger

Summary of reference entries provided

from the Leonard Cohen song

Mark Nathan

Discussion entries: 3

Answers

3 mins confidence:

who had outdrawn you

Explanation:
"out drew ya" is informal English for outdrawn you. In poker, if one player has a pair of kings and the other has three kings, the other player has outdrawn the first player and wins.

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 21:09
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 277

7 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

who had drawn his/her weapon first

Explanation:
What this composer writes can never be interpreted on just one level; it could be interpreted as the one who took the first of many kinds of actions, all of them probably all agressive. In a sense, it can be to shoot (to defend one's self, injure or kill? He doesn't specify) even though the other person attacks first. It could also infer that the other person was swifter, more clever, and more agressive.

Jenni Lukac
Local time: 04:09
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 111

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

who'd drawn his gun before you'd drawn yours

Jack Doughty
Local time: 03:09
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 410

Grading comment

thank all of you, including stephanie ezrol.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Cilian O'Tuama: how I read it too

29 mins

-> Thank you.

agree

Mark Nathan: although I do wonder how you manage to shoot someone who has already drawn their gun (saying "hey, look over there!" probably wouldn't work).

1 hr

-> Thank you. I wondered the same. If he could really do that and told us how, it would make all those Westerns unconvincing.

agree

airmailrpl: the guy that drew first was a bad shot

2 hrs

-> Thank you. But you can't be sure of that beforehand, and even if he is, he could get lucky.

agree

Mohd shadab

7 hrs

-> Thank you.

agree

BdiL: Interesting dissertation overall, but in the end, at best, it's just a matter of metaphor, and I'd leave some effort to vierama. Am I wrong?

14 hrs

-> Thank you. No, I think you're right.

Reference comments

2 hrs peer agreement (net): +2

Reference: from the Leonard Cohen song

Reference information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q&ob=av2e

Mark Nathan
France
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 76

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who’d out drew ya

English translation: who'd drawn his gun before you'd drawn yours

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who’d out drew ya

English translation: who'd drawn his gun before you'd drawn yours

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Reference comments

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KudoZ™ translation helpThe KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

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The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.