Translation - Romanian-English - A da cu bâta în baltă. A se îneca ca ţiganul la...

Ian, please read the discussion under the rejected translation.

CC: IanMegill2

Yeah, I was hoping if we put it out there, somebody might come up with something better...
But then again, if they just think the English means what the Romanian means, they're just going to vote in favor of it anyway, and we'll be no further ahead...
Hmmm...

"All that effort for nothing"?
"To get cold feet just as you're about to succeed"?
"To not finish what you started"?
"To not see something through to completion"?
Hmmm...

Hello Ian,
I found out the french version, "faire naufrage au port", could you please tell me the english version?

Ha ha! That's really funny!
I'll give it some thought and get back to you soon!
We don't say "get shipwrecked in the harbor" in English!

There's this half-joking expression:
"To snatch defeat from the jaws of victory"
which is a sarcastic reversal of the usual expression
"To snatch victory from the jaws of defeat"
Hmmm...
All the other idioms above ("faire naufrage au port" included) don't imply that the person gave up/stopped trying just at the moment he was going to succeed. They mean he just got very unlucky just as he was about to succeed, and that this bad luck was the cause of his failure...
We need to find an expression which reflects this giving up, not just bad luck...

What about that first one, "drop a clanger"? I've never heard of that, Ian, have you?

A se îneca ca ţiganul la mal = a nu reuşi, a eşua într-o acţiune tocmai când era pe punctul de a o duce la bun sfârşit.
"A se îneca ca ţiganul la mal" doesn't mean that the actual person gave up or stopped trying just when he was about to succeed. It just means he failed (right before he was able to complete the action) as in he *almost* succeeded in doing something.

OK; I stand by "to not quite make it", as I said here.

I have to contradict you here. I have heard it several times with that meaning, otherwise the saying has absolutely no sense. The orgins consists in the fact that gypsies are known as not being too perseverent.

Actually my father use it quite often in my past, to the point when I was close to end something after a lot of work and suddenly I could not anymore and I wanted to give up.

Definiţia de sus este luată direct din dicţionar... ceea ce înseamnă că este 100% corectă. Nu cred că este folosită pentru persoanele care renunţă, cel puţin în dicţionar nu este dat acest sens - şi sinceră să fiu, nici eu n-am auzit-o ca fiind spusă într-un astfel de context.

The definition of above is taken from a dictionary... It just has to be right. So I agree, "to not quite make it" is the closest you can get to the actual meaning of that Romanian saying.

It's also used when one works a lot and spends a lot of effort and, on the last "meters", does something stupid and everything is compromised.

I don't know, you decide, it seems that it does not have any correspondence in English. I just wanted an equivalent in order to be able to explain to my friends....

How about this one: "He came safe from the East Indies, and was drowned in the Thames"....a chip off the old block, sort of.

Yeah, that's the same as "getting shipwrecked in the harbour."

Hmmm...Well, there seem to be two interpretations of the phrase here (or at least two ways of using it) , so I guess we can put one of them in the main Translation field, and the other in the Remarks section:

To give up just as you're about to succeed

and

To miss by a neck(/nose; to not quite make it; close, but no cigars; all that effort for nothing; etc....)

iepurica, because you're the one who requested this translation, why don't I let you decide: which version do you want in the main Translation field, and which version in the Remarks?

Oh, sorry, kafetzou!

Yes, I think "to drop a clanger" might be British; I've heard/read it, but never used it myself...

Also, I think I should cut that expression
It's the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
from the Remarks section, because it seems to have a very different meaning from everything we've discussed so far.
It means
"little bad things accumulate, and finally there are so many little things that a big problem occurs."

So I'll cut that, unless anyone has any objections...

I guess we can let it as it is and to put this one: "To give up just as you're about to succeed" in the remarks field. And you're right about "It's the last straw that breaks the camel's back.", just delete it.

And thanks for the efoort, I would not guess a Romanian saying can cause so much trouble.

Great! Then that's what I'll do!

Don't apologize, iepurica! That's what is for! I learned a lot with this thread!