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Fallgestaltung
Stanzkarte
Dec 8, 2006 11:56
18 yrs ago
1 viewer *
German term

Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt sich treu

German to English Art/Literary Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
German proverb
Proposed translations (English)
3 -1 Change is a prerequisite for keeping the own identity
2 +11 adapt and survive
3 +3 Only by changing can you stay true to yourself
2 Only the flexible ones will stay
2 you have to change to remain
2 -2 one who changes, remains
Change log

Dec 8, 2006 12:56: Steffen Walter changed "Term asked" from "„Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt“." to "Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt"

Dec 8, 2006 12:57: Steffen Walter changed "Field (specific)" from "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters" to "Idioms / Maxims / Sayings" , "Field (write-in)" from "saying" to "(none)"

Dec 8, 2006 12:57: Steffen Walter changed "Field" from "Other" to "Art/Literary"

Dec 8, 2006 13:12: Marcus Malabad changed "Term asked" from "Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt" to "Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt sich treu"

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Darin Fitzpatrick

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

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When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

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Discussion

Ulrike Kraemer Dec 13, 2006:
... although I do have to admit that I made the same mistake when I was a "newbie" to this site ;-)
Ulrike Kraemer Dec 13, 2006:
@Asante: Thanks a lot for your e-mail. It would have been much better to provide this context right from the start because that would have saved us all a lot of confusion. You can't expect to get good suggestions if you don't provide context...
Ulrike Kraemer Dec 13, 2006:
Post-grading: It seems that the German-Danish community is not quite as "diskutierfreudig" as the DE-EN section: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1675194.
It would have been nice if you had at least provided us with an explanation / confirmation.
Nesrin Dec 8, 2006:
The original Biermann quotation was posted on Kudoz before, by the way: http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1044378
Steffen Walter Dec 8, 2006:
Are you really sure about the wording? LittleBalu is right.
Ulrike Kraemer Dec 8, 2006:
The full sentence reads: "Nur wer sich ändert, bleibt sich treu." And it's not a German proverb but a phrase coined by Wolf Biermann.
Francis Lee (X) Dec 8, 2006:
This probably depends on the context - which is? And if it's a German proverb, then why are there zero Google hits?

Proposed translations

-1
1 day 2 hrs
Selected

Change is a prerequisite for keeping the own identity

Noch 'so ne Idee
Peer comment(s):
disagree Armorel Young : Somebody needs to point out that "the own identity" just isn't English - it would have to be "one's own identity" ("own" can only be used with his/her/their etc., not with the)
3 days 19 hrs
Ich hatte sogar daran gedacht, wollte aber one's own eigentlich vermeiden. So ist dein Einwand dahingehend schon richtig.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
6 mins
German term (edited): „Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt“.

Only the flexible ones will stay

or:

Only those who are flexible will stay
Something went wrong...
11 mins
German term (edited): „Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt“.

you have to change to remain

Peer comment(s):
neutral Cilian O'Tuama : remain what?//even w/o added context, sth. is missing after your "remain"
1 hr
"sich treu" wasn't part of the question originally... Now it should read: you have to change to remain true to yourself...
Something went wrong...
-2
3 mins
German term (edited): „Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt“.

one who changes, remains

I dont know if it is an "official" translation

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 25 Min. (2006-12-08 12:22:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

An Alle: Wozu gibt es die Möglichkeit eine niedrige Antwortsicherheit anzugeben, wenn dann alle so reagieren? Das ist keine nette Art. Wenn jemand von vornerein angibt, dass er das nicht genau weiß, dann muss man nicht noch zehn mal betonen!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Peer comment(s):
disagree Francis Lee (X) : That's a word-for-word translation - and is galaxies away from anything a native-speaker would ever say ... / Wenn du es "nicht genau weiß(t)", dann wäre CL2 schon passend. But this is a completely off-the-wall answer!
4 mins
Erstens habe ich die niedrige Wissensstufe angegeben, zweitens, es reimt sich.
disagree Armorel Young : it doesn't sound English and it certainly doesn't rhyme - changes would rhyme with ranges, not remains
10 mins
disagree monbuckland : Agree with Armorel and Francis
18 mins
disagree vic voskuil : "one who chains, remains" rhymes
45 mins
neutral Cilian O'Tuama : irrespective of your confidence as to the suitability, answers proposed should at least be proper target language
1 hr
agree Lancashireman : Not a bad try at 3 mins. It can be quite annoying when the question is incorrectly phrased and subsequently changed in such a way as to make a bona fide answer look wide of the mark. It seems that most of the early contributors walked into the same trap.
8 hrs
thank you, Andrew
agree Nesrin : With Andrew :-)
20 hrs
thank you, Nesrin
Something went wrong...
+11
11 mins
German term (edited): „Nur wer sich ändern kann, bleibt“.

adapt and survive

One must adapt to survive.

But, as Francis says, it is impossible to come up with an appropriate translation without more context.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2006-12-08 13:41:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"sich treu" wasn't in there when the question was first posted, was it? That alters the meaning considerably, since the posted sentence now means "one must be able to change in order to remain true to one's self".
Peer comment(s):
agree monbuckland : I like this!
10 mins
agree BrigitteHilgner : Sounds good to me - maybe it does fit.
16 mins
agree Raghunathan Rajagopalan : adaptability is the key to survival
30 mins
agree Ingeborg Gowans (X)
1 hr
agree Ghislaine van der Burgt
1 hr
neutral Francis Lee (X) : It doesn't fit the Biermann context since added by LB. BUT to your defence: I'm also sure the "sich treu" was not in the original question! Otherwise a nice solution ;-)
1 hr
O good, it's not just my imagination that the question has changed, is it? And yet I thought editing questions wasn't possible - I have to say I think my proposal fitted the original posting but isn't right for the new one.
agree Nesrin : With your suggestion in the added note - as it's not really about survival here. -- check here as well http://www.proz.com/kudoz/1044378
2 hrs
agree Ulrike Kraemer : You are right, the "sich treu" wasn't in the original question. Moderator Marcus made the change without waiting for the asker's confirmation. You've provided "nice solutions" ;-) for both versions.
2 hrs
agree DDM
2 hrs
agree Isla
4 hrs
agree Languageman : with suggestion in added note
4 hrs
agree Lancashireman : Only by adapting to the movement of the goal posts can we relevel the playing field.
1 day 4 hrs
Something went wrong...
+3
2 hrs

Only by changing can you stay true to yourself

If exclusively BE target, consider substituting one and oneself

or:

It is only by changing that we stay true to ourselves
Peer comment(s):
agree Paul Cohen : Yes, this is the only answer that has the phrase "stay true to yourself," which is the essence of "sich treu bleiben."
27 mins
agree Nesrin : Right, but Armorel did suggest a similar version in her added note, hence the agrees.
1 hr
neutral Ulrike Kraemer : Please see Armorel's note above. The "sich treu" bit wasn't in the original question but was added by a moderator (see below), and Armorel was the first to suggest a correct "corrected" answer that is very similar to yours.
1 hr
agree Cetacea : True, Armorel's "corrected" answer is similar, but this is much smoother.
4 hrs
Something went wrong...
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