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The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2012-02-10 11:54:10 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Russian to English translations [PRO] Poetry & Literature
мне кажется, Вы недопоняли Татьяну - контекст не изменился. И речь не про traffic jam на дороге.
Так, вспомнилось: "You're not in traffic, traffic is you" :)
you should've said so. И мы не заводились бы со всеми этими тонкостями об “устойчивом разговорном выражении“, а написали бы “traffic jam“ и успокоились бы.
Bumper to bumper would be appropriate in this context. Although in my humble opinion it is mostly used to describe very heavy and slowly moving traffic on the road. Thank you Ty Kendall for you comments!
Thanks Michael! I'd feel like a bit of an intruder if I posted, but by all means you can suggest it on my behalf (posting two answers isn't illegal or just tack it onto your existing answer as a note if you wish!)
The Asker only says that it's a "stable colloquialism". It is. And it's very general (that's why I like your suggestion... you should post it!). As the entries below testify, it can be applied even to the inside of one's head or to a overstocked store-room or to a text (ни пройти, ни проехать ОТ ошибок), and just about to Chiockanything else. In fact, it's rammed with possibilities. Traffic is only one of those, and a minor one at that. Besides, the verb “ехать“, in Russian, doesn't necessarily refer to any particular means of transportation. For example, “он навсегда уехал из России“ - “А как?“ - “На самолете“, хотя на самолете не ездят, а летают. Короче, “надень на ... шапку, а то голову простудишь!“.
The asker is trying to get an idiomatic expression for some kind of traffic situation/traffic jam? i.e. where the traffic isn't even moving?
If I am guessing correctly then it's best to avoid anything which refers to the lack of physical space. This isn't how the Anglocentric mind thinks about traffic.
There isn't really a nice neat idiom that comes to mind, usually traffic jams are thought of in terms of disorder, so you have phrases like "it's bedlam/pandemonium/mayhem" or any other synonym which means the same (i.e. it's chaotic).
If you wanted to refer to the lack of physical space a phrase has just sprung to mind..."BUMPER TO BUMPER". See: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/bumper...
Thus spake a native speaker! And, in spite of being a native speaker of Russian (or conemned forever to be regarded as such even after 36 years of speaking, writing and even dreaming almost exclusively in English... and Italian... I digess too), I've nothing to object to here. Including “rammed": a very good solution, escept that if I saw it in English while translating INTO Russian, I would've rendered as "забито"/“там все забито“ и т.п. But not all idioms are easily matched cross-lingustically. Thank you, Ty!
Hello Russian speakers. Ok....I don't speak Russian, well, very basic Russian...but I digress....
I'm English and I can say for sure that in the UK today, a "no-go" area is one where drug dealers hang out and where your car will probably be stolen i.e. a dangerous place best avoided. I wouldn't use it here.
I can also confirm that "chock-a-block" is relatively common if somewhat old fashioned.
"No room to swing a cat" is also common, very common.
A very colloquial (British) way of saying a road is busy is "it's rammed".
but you can't say "my head is a no-go area because of the doubts", whilst you can say “у меня в голове ни пройти ни проехать от сомнений“.
Chock-a-block with doubts? For sure, perfect! But putting one's colledge sex-life in jeopardy... :)))))
Again I've consulted with English native speakers. According to them "no-go area" these days doesn't have the connotations of a dangerous/forbidden/restricted zone as it was the case back in 1970s. It is perfectly safe to say "The traffic on such and such road is bad. It's a no-go area". Just an opinion :-)
In the GB and the Guinessland the expresiion is less stigmatized, to be sure. In the US and among the Ausies and Canadians, many an English expression is a sign of nerdiness and/or pomminess...
As for preferences, tell me your preferences and I'll tell you who you are.
Personal tastes are "a no-go area" for others (see the meaning, by the way? that's why I would't use "no-go" for ни пройти ни проехать“).
And... Ultimately, "I'm a native speaker" is, or at least may be, an incompetent's last resort: if you're good, nativespeakiness doesn't matter much, if anything at all.
I've just read your entry about your decision to choose "no-go area".
Sorry, it'll be a wrong choice: its primary meaning is "restricted area" the area the entry into which is either forbidden or somehow dangerous. Nothing to DO with ни пройти ни проехать.
Just wanted to point out that the phrase was suggested to me by a native English speaker. I've lived in Ireland for 11 years myself and I do recall hearing this phrase from various people. My friend will be delighted to hear that he was called a nerd today :-) for the first time in his life. After all there is nothing wrong with personal preferences when it comes to translations.
when the stuff with which something is c-a-b is so unequivocal that its entity is tacitly acknowleged. It's too clear that the hotels are not chock-a-block with cats to such an extent that there's no room to swing a human.
And what about nerdiness?
Just go to any US colledge and say "chock-a-block" there – just once, and you'll remain a virgin for the rest of your studies. No football team and/or cheerleadership either. Aren't I just a pig, though?
you can perfectly say "something is/was chock-a-block". E.g. "The hotel was chock-a-block". Or check http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/346966.stm ("An AA spokesman said that southern and western stretches of the motorway were "chock-a-block").
And thanks for your support )
Susan, it IS, emphatically, a fixed idiom in English language. Google is chock-a-block (hah-hah!) with references to it. Here are the first three of one million five hundred thousand hits (sic!):
No room to swing a cat - the meaning and origin of this saying.
IdiomSite.com - No Room to Swing a Cat - Idiom Site
www.idiomsite.com/noroomto.htm
No Room to Swing a Cat In other words 'a small space'. The term may have derived from the British Navy but the origin is unclear. We received these emails ...
Idiom - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom
For example most native British English speakers know that "No room to swing a cat" means "there was not a lot of space" and can use the idiom properly, but ...
I must state, with conviction, that "chock-a-block" is one of the nerdiest sounding expressions of this century! Beats even "oh golly!" On the other hand, NRTSACat is simply fab! Besides, if you use ""C-A-B", you must state – with what, i.e., the street is c-a-b with cars, etc. Bi-besides, c-a-b means "full" rather than non-transitable, either by car or on foot. But that's splitting hairs, I suppose. It's because I hate it! Tri-besides, just in case you haven't noticed, I hate it!!!
chock-a-block sounds nice, i`ve heard this before referring to lots of people. You might however want to be careful about a "no-go area" because it is a set term for a "bad neighbourhood": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-go_area.
Насчет устойчивости же - весьма устойчивое - понаставили тут, ни пройти, ни проехать!
Всем большое спасибо за предложенные достойные варианты! Отличное выражение "no room to swing a cat", но ирландцы говорят, что оно больше подойдет для ситуаций внутри помещения. Очень нравится "It's a tight squeeze"; но я выбиру, пожалуй, выражение "no-go area", т.к. оно более общее (его можно применить и по отношению к плохим дорогам, как в русском языке).
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +4