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Der seltene Mann will seltenes Vertrauen...

English translation: Uncommon men require no common trust;...

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GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	Der seltene Mann will seltenes Vertrauen...
English translation:	Uncommon men require no common trust;...
Entered by:	Holger41

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08:52 Sep 23, 2004

German to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Poetry & Literature / Literature-quotation

German term or phrase: Der seltene Mann will seltenes Vertrauen...

Please help me with a nice idea how to translate it best. That is the full text of the respective quotation:
"Der seltene Mann will seltenes Vertrauen.
Gebt ihm den Raum, das Ziel wird er sich setzen."
Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

Holger41 KudoZ activity Questions: 63 (none open) (1 closed without grading) Answers: 68 Ireland
Local time: 17:32

Uncommon men require no common trust;...

Explanation:
...Give him but scope and he will set the bounds.

Is what I found on
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/books/gutenberg/etext04/fs26w10.txt

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Note added at 50 mins (2004-09-23 09:43:03 GMT)
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Zeile eins ist eine allgemeine Aussage, während sich Zeile 2 auf einen bestimmten Mann bezieht, daher einmal Plural \'men\' und einmal Singular \'he\'.

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Note added at 55 mins (2004-09-23 09:47:40 GMT)
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Quoted from
***
The Project Gutenberg EBook The Piccolomini (play), by Schiller
[Translated by S. T. Coleridge]
***
so I reckon it\'s as close to an \'official\' translation as one can get!

Selected response from:

Caro Giese
Local time: 18:32

Grading comment

Thank you very much for your help and the reference link.

Best regards,
Holger.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +3

The extraordinary man requires extraordinary trust....

Richard Benham

4 +1

Uncommon men require no common trust;...

Caro Giese

3 +2

a few thoughts....

Alison Riddell

1 +2

Bin the Schiller connection, follow Heidrun's advice ...

TonyTK

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

47 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

a few thoughts....

Explanation:
I take it that your translation is addressed to English-speaking employees. How familiar are they going to be with Schiller's poetry? This quote is from Schiller's Wallenstein, but I doubt if many of the target audience would be too familiar with his work.

You might like to try one of the following in its place:

Booker T. Washington:
Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him.

E.M. Forster:
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.

Frank Crane:
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough.

George MacDonald:
To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

Henry David Thoreau:
I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.

Indira Gandhi:
You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.

Rita Mae Brown:
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.

Thomas Jefferson:
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

Thomas Jefferson:
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Reference: http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_trust.html

Alison Riddell
Local time: 18:32
Native speaker of:

English

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

agree

Michael Bailey: Would agree that cultural transplantation might be a good idea if the audience is unfamiliar with Schiller.

16 mins

neutral

Richard Benham: 3 questions: (1) would the Gm employees be so familiar with Schiller? (2) Would English-speakers be familiar with your sources? (3) Does the source of the quote need to be familiar anyway?

22 mins

neutral

Dipl.-Ing. Robert Bach: No, no, and no. Furthermore, if they were Mercedes employees, I doubt that they would be familiar with Schiller. Therefore cultural transplant is not the priority. It's the message.

55 mins

agree

Terry Gilman: Thanks for quotes, Alison! also agree with Richard that the aptness of the message might count the most - OTOH do corporate messages really motivate anyone? I'd ask the client about it in any case.

1 hr

48 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Uncommon men require no common trust;...

Caro Giese
Local time: 18:32
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 20

Grading comment

Thank you very much for your help and the reference link.

Best regards,
Holger.

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Bin the Schiller connection, follow Heidrun's advice ...

Explanation:
to avoid alienating half the workforce, and use one of Alison's (the first one) or make up one of your own.

"Trust breeds confidence, confidence breeds excellence" (all rights reserved)

(Tony Tranter-Krstev, 1954-)

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Note added at 2004-09-23 14:30:56 (GMT)
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(I\'ll try again) ... \"women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition\"

TonyTK
Native speaker of:

English

37 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

The extraordinary man requires extraordinary trust....

Explanation:
Give him the space, and he will set his own goal(s).

"Goals" plural seems more idiomatic than "goal", but who knows?

"Will" does not mean "wants" here, but, as often in poetry "needs, requires".

I am sorry it seems to have got so much longer, but that's as close as I can get to the original sense.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 49 mins (2004-09-23 09:42:23 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

\"The uncommon man demands uncommon trust...\"
With a little help from Caro Giese, there\'s a metric translation of the first line.

Now for the second....

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 52 mins (2004-09-23 09:45:03 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Give him the space and he will set his goals.

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Note added at 3 hrs 57 mins (2004-09-23 12:50:21 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

SELF-CRITICISM: I am indebted to Heidrun for reminding me that political correctness is far more important than professional integrity. Unfortunately, it will take far more than getting rid of \"he\" and \"man\" to make my text politically acceptable. It also contains the elitist assumption that employees of high ability should be granted more autonomy than others. Even the name of the author needs revision: it contains the elitist nobiliary particle \"von\", as well as making the unwarranted sexist assumption that she or he is male. Worse still, my text is written in iambic pentameter, a verse-form associated with dead white males and requiring a modicum of education to master/mistress. Worst of all, it is written in clear and succinct language, and comes nowhere near fulfilling its quota of compulsory buzzwords.

So here is my attempt at a more acceptable version:

Persons of all abilities, including those who may be advantage or challenged in some respect, have a basic human need to feel that those in authority, such as their employers, have trust and confidence in them. Therefore, employers are required to initiate a wide-ranging and inclusive consultation process with a view to formulating, implementing and monitoring person-friendly workplace policies and guidelines seeking to minimize intrusive and counterprocuctive micro-management practices. It is anticipated that these policies and guidelines, specifically targeted at persons of all abilitites, will grant them enough space to empower themselves to set, prioritize and pursue, in a creative and meaningful way, their own goals, in a safe, fair and non-threatening workplace environment.

--Frederika SchillerIn

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Note added at 3 hrs 59 mins (2004-09-23 12:52:02 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

OOPS! \"advantaged\"

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Note added at 4 hrs 3 mins (2004-09-23 12:56:32 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Oh! and counterproductive.

Richard Benham
France
Local time: 18:32
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 16

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

agree

Caro Giese: maybe uncommon rather than extraordinary?

8 mins

-> That's possible, too. Also "demands" for "requires" is possible.

neutral

Heidi Stone-Schaller: Call me PC, but if you don't use a quote or official translation, you can and should take the liberty to not use "man," but something gender-neutral instead, given that this is for a modern-day context.//That's hardly my point.

1 hr

-> Well, PC, I just printed it out and put my official stamp on it; so now it's an official translation!//Well, I've seen the light. What do you think of my cleaned-up version?

neutral

TonyTK: "pursue" sounds a bit macho for my liking

3 hrs

-> Good point. How about "meaningfully engage with". I know it's repetitive, but isn't that a compulsory feature of PC language?

neutral

Tony M: Nice one, Richard! :-))) [I can't 'agree', 'cos it's not my lingo]

3 hrs

-> Thanks. Maybe HolgerIn should post this question in the German>PC-English forum instead.

agree

Dr. Fred Thomson: Prefer "uncommon," but agree with everything else. Conversion? Please say it isn't true!

4 hrs

-> My version before Heidrun converted me: "The uncommon man demands uncommon trust; / Give him the space and he will set his goals." This is the version my self-criticism was based on....//Afraid I've joined the PC brigade, Fred!

agree

Dr.G.MD

6 hrs

-> Thanks, Gerhard, but which version are you agreeing with?

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Der seltene Mann will seltenes Vertrauen...

English translation: Uncommon men require no common trust;...

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English translation: Uncommon men require no common trust;...

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