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продолжить себя в детях

English translation: perpetuate oneself through [one's] children

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Russian term or phrase:продолжить себя в детях
English translation:perpetuate oneself through [one's] children
Entered by: Andrew Vdovin

07:44 Apr 3, 2008
Russian to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature
Russian term or phrase: продолжить себя в детях
Я уже не надеялся увековечить свое имя в делах, а вот пойти по пути Адама и Евы и продолжить себя в детях - этой способностью природа меня не обидела.

Help with the phrase please!
Also, what would be your translation for “не обидела”? Favored me with?
Andrew Vdovin
Local time: 08:41
perpetuate oneself through [one's] children
Explanation:
Nature, Woman, and the Art of Politics - Google Books Resultby Eduardo A. Velásquez - 2000 - Social Science - 385 pages
... of the principal human desires establishes a primary desire for self-preservation and a secondary desire to perpetuate oneself through one's children. ...

books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0847692469...
Torn between theism and atheism - Page 5 - Literature Network Forumsthe things that people do for love defy mere trivial explanations like "herd instinct," "chemical reaction," "desire to perpetuate oneself through children ...
www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23984&pag... - 118k - Cached - Similar pages



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Note added at 22 hrs (2008-04-04 06:42:21 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

'Perpetuate' is understood here in the sense of 'to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion', and not 'to live vicariously' through one's children (see dictionary entry below):

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Perpetuate

Per*pet"u*ate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Perpetuated; p. pr. & vb. n. Perpetuating.] [L. perpetuatus, p. p. of perpetuare to perpetuate. See Perpetual.] To make perpetual; to cause to endure, or to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion; to eternize. --Addison. Burke. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Selected response from:

Caroline Makrop
Greece
Local time: 04:41
Grading comment
Thank you very much for your help Caroline! Thanks everybody!!!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3live on in your children
LILY PALMER
4 +1find my continuation in my children
Irina Mestergazi
4 +1follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve and partake in procreation
Ray East
4 +1the Adam and Eve route to immortality - the ability to produce children (see whole sentence, below)
Rachel Douglas
3 +2perpetuate oneself through [one's] children
Caroline Makrop
4to use a chance and live on in posterity
Alex Koudlai
4have your legacy in your children
Tatiana N. (X)
4to multiply and replenish (like Adam and Eve)
Vitals
4 -1to follow the example of Adam and Eve and continue their kind
Anna Mirakyan
2 +1..to follow Adam and Eve and enjoy procreation - I was [highly] capable in this regard.
Vladimir Dubisskiy
3 -1start family and teleport myself this way into the future
Zamira B.


Discussion entries: 12





  

Answers


15 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
to follow the example of Adam and Eve and continue their kind


Explanation:
-

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Note added at 23 mins (2008-04-03 08:08:43 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

... but nature did not deprive me of ability to follow the example of Adam and Eve and continue my kind.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 26 mins (2008-04-03 08:11:47 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

... but at least had a hope to follow the example of Adam and Eve and continue my kind. Nature did not deprive me of that ability.

Anna Mirakyan
Armenia
Local time: 05:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in ArmenianArmenian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Susan Welsh: себя -- perpetuate oneself, or find one's continuation. The idea really is seeking immortality--but you can't translate it that way, since the source does not put it that way.
3 hrs
  -> I am not agree with your point of view anyway. The source states that the nature gives him the ability of procreation and thus reaching immortality (in its physical meaning).
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28 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +1
..to follow Adam and Eve and enjoy procreation - I was [highly] capable in this regard.


Explanation:
a variant

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 29 mins (2008-04-03 08:14:02 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

or
... and procreate...

Vladimir Dubisskiy
United States
Local time: 20:41
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in UkrainianUkrainian
PRO pts in category: 36

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Oleksandr Yastremskyi
46 mins
  -> Thank you
agree  Zoya Askarova
55 mins
  -> Спасибо, Зоя
disagree  Susan Welsh: I'm sure they did enjoy procreation, but that's not the point, which is that the narrator is seeking his immortality through his children (see post above).
3 hrs
  -> I doubt you're correct with this one: the last part of the phrase implies procreation and, say, "high functionality" of the hero. (Nothing about immortality at all - it's more Earth bound :-))
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31 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
find my continuation in my children


Explanation:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=it&rls=com.microsoft:it-IT:I...


Irina Mestergazi
Italy
Local time: 03:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in ItalianItalian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Susan Welsh
3 hrs
  -> Thank you Susan!
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33 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): -1
start family and teleport myself this way into the future


Explanation:
это мы в старом офисе так называли детей - телепортация в будущее :)

Zamira B.
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:41
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in category: 36

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Susan Welsh: "Teleport" is too weird. Sounds like Star Trek: "Beam me up, Scottie."
2 hrs
  -> I forgot to put that word in quotation marks to avoid its literal interpretation. Anyway, I was not insisting this was correct way. It was rather for-fun suggestion.
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
live on in your children


Explanation:
-

LILY PALMER
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:41
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  GaryG
1 hr
agree  Tatiana N. (X)
3 hrs
agree  Simon Geoghegan: I would say "live on through your children". But this might be a British English/American English thing.
8 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve and partake in procreation


Explanation:
Since it is literature, why not have some alliteration? :-) Seems more than fitting.



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2008-04-03 09:37:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Also the idiom "follow in the footsteps..."

Ray East
Ukraine
Local time: 04:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Olga Cartlidge
38 mins
  -> Thank you, Olga!
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3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
to use a chance and live on in posterity


Explanation:
Вроде бы это соответствует игривому и простоватому стилю оригинала

Я бы ответил на второй вопрос: I was not deprived by nature...

Alex Koudlai
United States
Local time: 21:41
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in category: 14
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
have your legacy in your children


Explanation:
Your very life should be a message, but words help, too. My legacy? What would I say? My children are my greatest legacy...

www.jhsiess.com/2008/01/21/legacy/

Tatiana N. (X)
Local time: 21:41
Native speaker of: Russian
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
to multiply and replenish (like Adam and Eve)


Explanation:
Раз уж ссылка на Библию (Адам и Ева), то можно ее и проджолжить:
"плодитесь и размножайтесь" = "multiply and replenish (the earth)"

Vitals
Lithuania
Local time: 04:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian, Native in LithuanianLithuanian
PRO pts in category: 3
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
the Adam and Eve route to immortality - the ability to produce children (see whole sentence, below)


Explanation:
Thinking about the earlier fragments of this biography which Andrei has provided, to me the author's slightly ironical tone might sound something like this: "I had given [gave up] up on perpetuating my name through my work, but nature hadn't shortchanged me on the Adam and Eve route to immortality - the ability to produce children."

Or: replace "perpetuating / immortality" with "immortalizing / eternal life", those respective places.

"Work" not "deeds" for "в делах" is contextual, because procreation is also a "deed", and it sounds like the author is still talking about his flating from job to job.

The tense of the first verb would depend on the immediately surrounding sentences.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2008-04-03 13:11:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Cx.
in those respective places
floating, not flating

Rachel Douglas
United States
Local time: 21:41
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 384

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ray East: I agree Rachel, your answer caputes both the need to vicariously live through one's children as well as the action of child birth. Very nice.
15 hrs
  -> Thanks, Ray. I posted that rather late and I think it got lost amid the great number of suggestions. But, do you and others think it's a woman talking (childbirth)? I figured it was the same protagonist who's been bouncing from job to job, etc.
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
perpetuate oneself through [one's] children


Explanation:
Nature, Woman, and the Art of Politics - Google Books Resultby Eduardo A. Velásquez - 2000 - Social Science - 385 pages
... of the principal human desires establishes a primary desire for self-preservation and a secondary desire to perpetuate oneself through one's children. ...

books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=0847692469...
Torn between theism and atheism - Page 5 - Literature Network Forumsthe things that people do for love defy mere trivial explanations like "herd instinct," "chemical reaction," "desire to perpetuate oneself through children ...
www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23984&pag... - 118k - Cached - Similar pages



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 22 hrs (2008-04-04 06:42:21 GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

'Perpetuate' is understood here in the sense of 'to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion', and not 'to live vicariously' through one's children (see dictionary entry below):

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Perpetuate

Per*pet"u*ate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Perpetuated; p. pr. & vb. n. Perpetuating.] [L. perpetuatus, p. p. of perpetuare to perpetuate. See Perpetual.] To make perpetual; to cause to endure, or to be continued, indefinitely; to preserve from extinction or oblivion; to eternize. --Addison. Burke. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.


Example sentence(s):
  • perpetuate oneself through one's children
Caroline Makrop
Greece
Local time: 04:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Thank you very much for your help Caroline! Thanks everybody!!!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  R. E. M: Absolutely! This one is perfect!
3 hrs
  -> Thanks!
agree  Simon Geoghegan: Spot on!
7 hrs
  -> Thanks!
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