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German to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
German term or phrase:karierte(n) Maiglöckchen
Die unterschiedlichen Produktformate, die wir bewegen, sind die sprichwörtlichen *** ‚karierten Maiglöckchen‘ *** und lassen sich nicht standardisieren.
Am I understanding this correctly: the proverbial "karierte Maiglöckchen" are presumably all different shapes and sizes..?
Question is, what would be the equivalent proverbial expression in English...?
That's the way I read it too; question is: what concise English idiom would fit and be in keeping with the style? Keep in mind that it also appears in the heading, "50 HGV's full of 'karierte Maiglöckchen' per day". The same expression should be used in both places or the whole point of the heading is lost...
Per the context they transport tires of any and all dimensions. What I think the "karierte Maiglöckchen" are supposed to "transport" or bring across is that this transport company is very flexible and able to deal with very rare, non-standard dimensions and/or requirements. They deliver what others cannot handle, " they make the impossible possible".
So, you think it has more to do with the difficulty of the transport operation rather than obscurity and disparate nature of the products in question? If that were the case, then "karierter Maiglöckchen" (as I understand its meaning) doesn't seem the appropriate idiom in this context...
So, in the entire context, the heading of the paragraph is:
50 LKWs voller „karierter Maiglöckchen“ pro Tag
followed by the quoted text from the Head of Logistics:
„In der Welt der Logistik sind das keine Superlativen, doch wenn wir auf die Frage, mit welchen Produkten wir arbeiten, mit ‚Reifen mit einem Durchmesser von 20 cm bis 2,60 m‘ antworten, schlagen die meisten Logistiker die Hände über dem Kopf zusammen. Die unterschiedlichen Produktformate, die wir bewegen, sind die sprichwörtlichen ‚karierten Maiglöckchen‘ und lassen sich nicht standardisieren."
So in this context (and my new-found understanding of what "karierte Maiglöckchen" are), I think "blue rose" could still fit OK, even though the whole thing sounds a little odd to my ears...
I'm not sure that what they distribute is relevant
13:51 May 11, 2012
Because asking for a perfect translation of an idiom that cannot be found in any dictionary and without any background information is precisely like asking for karierte Maiglöckchen. :-)
I'm not sure that what they distribute is relevant here, but it's tyres. The use of a botanical reference seems misplaced to me, but the author, or rather the person the author is quoting, used the idiom so I have strived to find something equivalent.
There is no deeper meaning in the botanical bit, it just happened to become a proverb because it sounds beautifully absurd. A reference to flowers might make sense if they are shipping delicate, fragile or perishable products. It would really help if you could at least give us a hint about the nature of the products, live animals, human organs, bee hives, weapons and explosives and such.
"karierte Maiglöckchen" is the wrong term in the context. Look at what they really transport and come up with a suitable term for that. Clients do make mistakes ...
Not a freight company, but a distributor with a logistics operation so they have their own delivery fleet. I've assumed that the Maiglöckchen reference indicates the specialised or rare nature of the products, also implying that there is no way to have a standardised method of dealing with them, but that doesn't really make all that much sense... Anyway, I have used "blue rose" as probably the closest idiom whilst remaining botanical.
The text concerns the logistics operation associated with the supply of a wide and specialised range of products. I was also thinking that the Maiglöckchen reference was possibly misplaced or misunderstood by the author, but it is used again when referring to the supply of "50 LKWs voller „karierter Maiglöckchen“ pro Tag"... Assuming I have the correct understanding, I have sought a botanical equivalent, i.e. something nearly impossible, and come up with "blue rose".
Ich sehe hier einen Widerspruch: so wie ich den Ausdruck "karrierte Maiglöckchen" kenne, bedeutet er etwas Unmögliches, etwas, das man nicht haben kann. Aber offenbar bietet das Unternehmen eine breite Produktvielfalt - das bringe ich nicht mit den Maiglöckchen zusammen. Um welche Produkte geht es? In welchem Zusammenhang steht der Satz?
the eierlegende Wollmilchsau. It has a slightly different connotation, and technically it exists in form of any Swiss Army Knife, iPhone or my TV that helpfully tells me the name of the caller whenever the phone rings. If the eierlegende Wollmilchsau would have been meant, they would have used this term in the source text. Your text is about something that is unrealistic or simply not doable, except by magic.
Was just about to type "eierlegende Wollmilchsau" myself. Found another interesting expression "swiss-army knife syndrome" in http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=swiss-army kn... definition is "The condition of needing to be equiped with the most possible tools for the maximum number of undefined situations." If you read on the definition becomes a bit negative so I wouldn't use it here. But interesting nevertheless, maybe someone can use it someday.
Thanks for the many suggestions! So something along the lines of an "Eier legenden Wollmilchsau"? Or keeping to the botanical metaphors, a black rose or similar that in practice is impossible?
"Karierte Maiglöckchen" is used whenever a customer demands something impossible, such as the product development of a toaster that will also do your laundry, fetch your newspaper and drive your kids to school. It's an overly extravagant customer demand that can not be fulfilled.
Explanation: Thanks for the context! No wonder that no freight company wants to take this job - with all those different sizes, calculating the necessary space on a standardized basis is an insane task.
I like the snowflake example because everyone knows that no snowflake resembles another.
Nicole Schnell United States Local time: 19:17 Specializes in field Native speaker of: German PRO pts in category: 64
Explanation: pot•pour•ri 1. A combination of incongruous things 2. A miscellaneous anthology or collection: 3. A mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/potpourri
‘sprichwörtlich’ = ‘proverbial’, but as there is (apparently) no appropriate proverb in EN, I would recommend ‘veritable’:
“The many different types of product that we transport are a veritable potpourri and are impossible to categorise/standardise.”
50 truckloads of ‘potpourri’ per day
Lancashireman United Kingdom Local time: 03:17 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 160
Reference: About the difference between "eierlegende Wollilchsau" and "karierte Maiglöckchen":
Reference information: Früher kannte ich auch "karierte Maiglöckchen" in ähnlicher Bedeutung. Bei diesem Ausdruck liegt der Fokus weniger auf dem produzierenden Aspekt wie bei der ELWMS, sondern noch stärker darauf, dass jemand etwas übertrieben Spezielles sucht, was es einfach nicht gibt, was eventuell widernatürlich oder vielleicht sogar in sich widersprüchlich ist, und dessen Sinn sich nur schlecht erschließt - wozu muss ein Maiglöckchen kariert sein...?
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