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Bring it on

by Bemused, March 23, 2013

Messages: 11

Language: English

Bemused (User's profile) March 23, 2013, 2:36:13 PM

You are playing a war game.
A player much more powerful than you threatens to destroy you.
You reply "Bring it on".
A direct translation to Esperanto would be meaningless.
So how to convey, in Esperanto, the same feeling of fearless disregard for the threat?

hebda999 (User's profile) March 23, 2013, 5:06:23 PM

Bemused:You are playing a war game.
A player much more powerful than you threatens to destroy you.
You reply "Bring it on".
A direct translation to Esperanto would be meaningless.
So how to convey, in Esperanto, the same feeling of fearless disregard for the threat?
"Simple komencu"
"Ataku"
"Montru kion vi kapablas"
...

J_Marc (User's profile) March 24, 2013, 1:53:31 AM

In Zamenhof's translation of Hamlet, he used the following expression as an invitation to a swordfight. This has it all; fearlessness, respect for the foe, rhythm, brevity. Plus, Zamenhof and Shakespeare wrote it:

Venu do, sinjoro.

(Some kind soul with a copy of Hamlet on hand will no doubt tell us the original English expression that this derives from!)

fari_teon (User's profile) March 28, 2013, 2:52:44 PM

I was going to say 'I dare you' but the translations for 'dare' seem to be based on 'how dare you' (as in the audacity of you) rather than 'I dare you' (I urge you to do something you wouldn't normally do)

Although, maybe 'Mi kuraĝas vin' would work.

Vespero_ (User's profile) March 28, 2013, 4:35:53 PM

J_Marc:In Zamenhof's translation of Hamlet, he used the following expression as an invitation to a swordfight. This has it all; fearlessness, respect for the foe, rhythm, brevity. Plus, Zamenhof and Shakespeare wrote it:

Venu do, sinjoro.

(Some kind soul with a copy of Hamlet on hand will no doubt tell us the original English expression that this derives from!)
I think I like this the best of any I've seen or done!

Simon Pure (User's profile) March 28, 2013, 7:27:12 PM

I would drop the shakespearean formality and just say "Do Venu." To me this captures the simplicity of 'bring it on,' but really the situation would dictate which was most appropriate.

Simon Pure (User's profile) March 28, 2013, 7:27:14 PM

I would drop the shakespearean formality and just say "Do Venu." To me this captures the simplicity of 'bring it on,' but really the situation would dictate which was most appropriate.

Tempodivalse (User's profile) March 29, 2013, 2:23:07 AM

I like nu, venu! or perhaps venu do. The shorter it is, the better it conveys the simple defiance of the original English phrase.

Dakila_Sidhi (User's profile) March 30, 2013, 5:00:39 AM

In Filipino we say "tara" which is "c'mon", so "venu" totally makes sense to me.

sudanglo (User's profile) March 30, 2013, 9:50:05 AM

Even shorter would be 'Eku, do'.

Two points should be noted however.

1. The Samideanoj are too genteel to be crudely pugnacious.
2. In Esperanto there are relatively few fixed parol-turnoj sanctioned by usage.

The latter point is the most important. One doesn't want to burden the language and create a distinction between spertaj Esperantistoj and komencantoj comparable to the native speaker/foreigner learner reality that exists for national languages.

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