— Я все понимаю, — говорит он. — Идиотство, конечно...
— Вот-вот! — подхватываю я. — Идиотство! В наше время... Чтоб свет клином... Чтоб столько лет... Вот я, например...
— Ты — другое дело, — говорит он.
“Right,” he says, “Idiocy plain and simple...” “THAT’S the spirit!” I echo, “Idiocy! In this day and age... the only fish in the sea... so many years wasted. Now take me, for example... “You’re a horse of another color,” he says.
Я всё понимаю needs more context. It could mean "I understand everything" or could be an introductory phrase without special meaning.
Татьяна: Улий, что-то ты на Лингволайв редким гостем стал.
Улий: Да бесят меня здесь идиоты и клоуны.
Татьяна: Я всё понимаю, но кто тогда наши переводы поправлять будет?
Okay¿
"I got your point" he says, "That's so stupid". "Exactly" I echo, "Stupid! In our time... There's more to life than... So many years... Take me, for example..."
“You're a different matter" he says. ¿¿¿
"Yes, that's quite clear" he says, "Idiocy, no doubt."
"Exactly!" I joined in, "Idiocy! Nowadays...the only passion... so many years... as for me, for example..."
"You're quite different" he says.
A note on СВЕТ КЛИНОМ:
1). "На тебе сошелся клином белый свет" (from lyrics) = you're my one and only love, or, more literally, the whole world has focused on you (like I've built my world around you).
2)
A: Ты бы знал как мне хочется эту Мицубиси, но она такая дорогая!
В:. У тебя что, на Мицубиси СВЕТ КЛИНОМ СОШЕЛСЯ? Возьми Ниссан или Форд.
A: If you only knew how much I want this Mitsubishi, but it's so expensive!
B: Is it the only choice for you? Buy you a Nissan, or a Ford.
Thank you, Tatiana! T: You've become something of an infrequent guest on LingvoLive. U: Yeah, I'm fed up with morons and clowns. T: I get it, but who's going to check our translations now?
Чем могу! 😉
A and B are talking about a girl who B is in love with, but found out she's getting married to someone else. So A talks to him and B says that the whole situation is idiotic. So B agrees that it's idiotic and echoes all the things they discussed previously... that she's the only one for him, that he's been in love with her for so many years,... My problem here is that I don't understand the use of ЧТО(БЫ). I would have expected ЧТО.
Sasha, thank you for explaining свет клином сошелся. I don't get the imagery behind this expression. Does свет mean light or world here? What is a клином? What is the literal scenario to provides the figurative meaning?
(Мать заходит в комнату дочери в то время, когда у той каникулы)
- Я, конечно, всё понимаю, но в комнате хоть немножко можно убраться? Спишь до обеда, так потом найди время.
I of course get that you’re on vacation, but it wouldn’t kill you to tidy up a little around here, huh? You can sleep until noon, then get to it.
I mean я всё понимаю wouldn't necessarily mean that someone understands someone/something. Sometimes it's a way to express one's anger, frustration etc.
I guess I don’t know that nuance because all I see is “i get it” (( So in your example, you wouldn’t really translate it? It would just be an overtone of anger and frustration?
(Жена заходит на кухню, где муж пьёт пиво. Под столом батарея пустых банок и бутылок.)
— Я, конечно, всё понимаю, но тебе завтра на работу и, между прочим, за руль садиться.
I understand the snippet, but don’t know what to do with все понимаю now. How would you translate this?
What I wanted to point out is that in Russian you don't need to mention what exactly я понимаю; so I assumed there could be something like that in English.
So how would you translate that snippet?
I'm at a loss. I'm worried about having confused you. Maybe я всё понимаю in your snippet translates literally. It would be good to have the context. What refers to my snippets, is there a phrase the mother and the wife from both snippets would say?
We need something sarcastic I think.
Maybe we should consult Marat in our chat.
(Муж и жена (оба за 40) собираются в гости)
- Я, конечно, всё понимаю, но, может, тебе юбку подлиннее надеть? Не девочка уже.
Yes👍
(На уроке шумно, никто не слышит (да и не слушает) учителя)
- Эй, люди, можете потише! Я, конечно, всё понимаю, но мне физику сдавать, в отличие от вас. 😏
Yes, this is confusing, but I love that – confusion leads to learning, in my case. I can’t wait to find out what this means. We should post these snippets in our chat and see what Marat has to say.
Я все понимаю
He said "Yea, I agree with you" or "Yea, you are right, bro" but in fact he thinks the opposite.
"Я, конечно, всё понимаю" in Tatiana's snippet is sarcastic for "I understand you're tired and need to relax, but you'll have to go to work tomorrow and more of that, you're going to be at the wheel/to steer the car."
In Uly's dialog "ЧТОБ столько лет..." or in full form "НО ЧТОБЫ столько лет..." means "BUT for so many years..." There's no need to directly translate ЧТОБЫ in your context, it just emphasises surprise. The background of ЧТОБЫ is seen in "I can believe (I understand) it's possible to drink a pint of vodka at a time, but I can't imagine THAT ( что/ЧТОБЫ) one would be able to drink two!" "Я понимаю, что возможно выпить бутылку водки за раз, но ЧТОБЫ две..." - surprise, he can hardly believe it's possible.
As for СВЕТ КЛИНОМ:
"Белый свет, на (всём) белом свете" usually refers to the whole wide word. In the idiom "Белый свет сошелся клином на ком-то/чем-то" is like the whole world concentrated in one point for someone, or like a stream of light focused wedge-like in a point. I never thought about the imagery of this, but you made my brain think and my imagination work ))).
Ah, so it’s like a spotlight focusing in on one thing. Got it! Thank you 🙏
On чтоб, I now understand. It’s not translated there, but I understand the meaning.
LG, if he expresses agreement that he doesn’t feel, then we say RIGHT: Right, you’re on vacation, but that doesn’t mean your room has to be a complete shambles. You can sleep until noon and then I want this room spic and span!
Right, people, could you keep it down a bit? Unlike you, I have a physics exam in the morning!
Right, do you think you can put on a skirt that shows less leg? Your cheerleading days have come and gone, sweetie.
Right, do you think you’ve had enough? You DO have work tomorrow, AND you have to get behind the wheel!
LG, thank you for helping us figure this out! Unfortunately, YOU ARE RIGHT and I AGREE WITH YOU would not express the same emotion you and Tatiana are referring to - they would be quite literal and not sarcastic. RIGHT does the trick)) Thank you!
My pleasure, Uly!
Good to know about RIGHT, thank you!
Absolutely. Also, it’s MUCH more common in England than in the States. When we want to be sarcastic, we say “Oh (ok), I see how it is...”
As to "сошелся клином белый свет", - yes, "белый свет" meant 'the world', 'the whole world' in old days, now it's only poetic.
But that's not about light.
Some poor peasants had very little plots of land. They were often long and narrow and even triangle sometimes. Those plots were called клин.
Seems this is quite good explanation:
People in the 19th century understood the meaning of "сошелся клином белый свет" but I don't get it) and can't explain it).
How very interesting! Thank you for that. We have an expression that’s similar: He think the sun rises and sets on her/on his car/on his house, etc.
Как здорово читать свои сниппеты на английском!
Спасибо! 🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍
На тебе сошёлся клином
белый свет,
Но пропал за поворотом
санный след.
(from a song)
Всегда пожалуйста! Спасибо тебе за помощь))
Взаимно! 👍
Улий, не хватает твоего перевода. 😏
🙏👍
PLAIN and simple ¿