Manchmal sind wir hart am Rande zum Brei

English translation: Sometimes we are hard on the brink/verge of pulp

01:33 Jun 4, 2001

German to English translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary

German term or phrase: Manchmal sind wir hart am Rande zum Brei

It's a musician talking about his band; the sentence continues "... manchmal verfallen wir in unsere Bestandteile"

Een (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 77 (none open) Answers: 37
Local time: 17:54

English translation:Sometimes we are hard on the brink/verge of pulp

Explanation:
since Blixa Bargeld's statement continues:
Wir sind in der Lage, ganz schlecht und ganz wunderbar zu spielen,
I guess this is the bad part, but what do you make out of the good one?

..we play/perform with every part of our bodies and souls?

Surely they are not falling into pieces.
It's verfallen, not zerfallen.

Good luck :-)

Selected response from:

Uschi (Ursula) Walke
Local time: 02:54

Grading comment

Wow -- is this quotation so famous that you recognised it as Blixa Bargeld straightaway and knew the rest of the quote? I'm still tussling with it, despite four useful answers so far, as the ambiguities and complexities in the Neubauten philosophy means it could go either way, i.e. the sentence could end on a more positive note (which I would translate as "sometimes we fall into our component parts", i.e. come together as a band) or a negative one ("sometimes we fall apart altogether"), decay and total collapse being no less positive for Blixa and the others. Are you sure it's "zerfallen" and not "verfalledn"? Where did you come across this quote? I came across it on a website. Let me know what you think of these suggestions. Many thanks, Ian ([email protected])
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

Often we are close to boiling over

Mats Wiman

Sometimes we are hard on the brink/verge of pulp

Uschi (Ursula) Walke

We are often close to the edge

lone (X)

Sometimes we are on the verge of a breakdown

Astrid Bidanec

Answers

45 mins

Often we are close to boiling over

Explanation:
Brei < südl. althochdeutsch 'gekochtes'

13 years in Germany+Duden

Mats Wiman
Sweden
Local time: 18:54
Native speaker of:

Swedish
PRO pts in pair: 1498

58 mins

Sometimes we are hard on the brink/verge of pulp

Uschi (Ursula) Walke
Local time: 02:54
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in pair: 492

Grading comment

2 hrs

We are often close to the edge

Explanation:
Hope this helps you. Good luck!

Lived an worked in Germany for many years

lone (X)
Canada
Local time: 12:54
Native speaker of: Danish
PRO pts in pair: 330

4 hrs

Sometimes we are on the verge of a breakdown

Explanation:
"...and sometimes we do break down."
Without context it is hard to figure out the exact meaning, but this is a pretty literal translation.
Good luck!

Native German

Astrid Bidanec
PRO pts in pair: 7

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