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French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Journalism / article reviewing Cirque Plume
French term or phrase:décrocher
Et comme tout poète qui se respecte, en appelle à la lune. Oh pas pour la décrocher, non. Juste la faire sourire ou jongler dessus...
I know that 'décrocher la lune' can mean 'hit the jackpot' but can't fit that into this context. If you need more context, see below for preceding sentence:
Cirque Plume rend souple des sculptures de marbre dont les étreintes semblent ne laisser derrière elle que poussière de craie sur le sol. Elle se joue des ombres et de la lumière, des clairs et des obscurs.
appeler la lune = invoke the moon (it's poetic!!). This is an artistic form of circus, with all kinds if literary allusions, mainly to the world of painting in this particular show. They may well have a moon hanging above the stage, who knows?
I'm not sure I understand what's going on here - what does "rend souple des sculptures de marbre" mean? But would "shooting for the moon" work as a translation?
hitting the jackpot as reaching an impossible goal. Lovers will speak of décrocher la lune on behalf of the object of their love. Maybe "conquering" would fit here...
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
23 mins confidence:
seek the impossible
Explanation: IMHO chercher la lune means to do whatever it takes to attain a virtually impossible goal. For example, when in love one could say, "Pour toi je décrocherai la lune"...
Katherine Parks France Local time: 20:33 Native speaker of: English
Explanation: I could imagine that you may want to retain the idea of the moon in English, in which case translating "décrocher la lune" with "to fly to the moon" may be a solution. Although flying to the moon is physically possible, it still remains a dream for many people.
Jeux de Mots Germany Local time: 20:33 Works in field Native speaker of: English
Explanation: I suggest "to grab", after idiomatic English "to grab the brass ring" (= "décrocher le pompon").
Et il me semble que "to grab" rend bien le contraste entre les phrases de contexte, et l'idée de "décrocher", "attraper", "acquérir"...
Michel F. Morin France Local time: 20:33 Specializes in field Native speaker of: French PRO pts in category: 8
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
