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What does this mean? "Ni parolas inter kvar okuloj."

david_uk :lta, 16. helmikuuta 2017

Viestejä: 15

Kieli: English

david_uk (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 15.47.34

Can anyone translate this for me?

This is something in "Step by step in esperanto", but I can only translate it as "We talk between four eyes", and that makes no sense at all.

nornen (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 16.19.40

We talk in private / tête-à-tête / in confidence / between you and me and the lamppost.

david_uk (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 17.04.00

Thank you.

Can you explain why? Is that a common phrase in some other language?

I have never heard anyone say that in English.

david_uk (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 17.37.48

I have found this, which I think explains it.

http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/117356/is-t...

Apparently this is a German idiom. What it is doing in a book that is supposed to teach Esperanto to English speakers I have no idea.

opajpoaj (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 21.18.06

bartlett22183 (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 21.40.13

This is an example why, in my opinion, speakers / users of an international auxiliary language must take particular, especial care not use use idioms which are common in their native languages. Many idioms are either incomprehensible or subject to major misunderstanding to other people who do not share that language and culture. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and make every effort to avoid idioms common in your own language.

Roch (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 22.13.32

demando.gif
Gestandnis unter vier Augen (released in other English-speaking countries as "Confession Under Four Eyes"), the 1954 Andre Michel West German romantic crime melodrama starring Hildegard Knef, Carl Raddatz, Ivan Desny, Werner Hinz, Franz Schafheitlin, and Stanislav Ledinek

externalImage.png

edit
Oh I see through opajpoaj's link that it already existed by 1921

Vestitor (Näytä profiilli) 16. helmikuuta 2017 22.20.04

It's a Dutch idiom too (probably in several European languages).

I agree with Bartlett. Speaking in idioms (or inventing them) in Esperanto is a disaster waiting to happen. There is no way you can be sure that another person from a different culture will recognise an idiom's structure and meaning.

And let's face the fact, it's not as if the world is teeming with virtuoso Esperantists waiting to decipher them.

noelekim (Näytä profiilli) 17. helmikuuta 2017 2.26.30

Tatoeba suggests: "Konfidence inter ni" http://tatoeba.org/epo/sentences/show/1937845

raydpratt (Näytä profiilli) 19. helmikuuta 2017 17.01.49

Although it was expressed in Esperanto, it is really a piece of local culture, and so I enjoyed learning about it. I think that it is inevitable that Esperanto speakers will share and use some of their local cultural idioms, but I hope that the speakers will not take it for granted that they can be understood by all readers and listeners. I originally interpreted the sentence as meaning that a conversation does not occur without two people. It did not occur to me that a conversation with four eyes is one that excludes a higher number of eyes, i.e, a private conversation.

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