There's a famous German poem called "Dann gibt es nur eins". It translates more or less as "There's only one thing to do". It's a tag line that occurs several times in the poem in lines like this:

"You. Man at the machine and man in the factory. If tomorrow they tell you to quit making pots and pans and start making helmets and machine guns, there's only one thing to do: Say NO!"

What's the best way to translate "Dann gibt es nur eins" into Esperanto? I'm looking for something that has a good rhythm to it. "Estas nur unu farendaĵo" is fairly literal but doesn't sound right. I'm looking for something that has the urgency and uniqueness ("there's ONLY ONE thing to do" ) - and the punch - of the German original.

"Nur unu estas farenda"? I suspect "-end-" is going to be in there somewhere.

Thanks.

Forigite

Hyperboreus:Especially, when did the pipes turn into pots??? And where do the pans come from?

Good question. I pulled that off of the first English translation I found, at swans.com (I'll supply the URL if you like) and didn't pay all that much attention when I copied it over here. I think they took certain liberties from the original. Blame me if you like, my high school German is some 40 years behind me.

You're right, in translating this one should go back to the original German.

Nur unu ebla reago - diru NE.
Nur unu afero farinda/farenda
Nur unu vorto por diri - NE.
Nur unu ebla respondo - NE
Nur unu afero, kiun vi devus fari.