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Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

herauskommen machen

English translation:

beat a hasty retreat

Added to glossary by Edwin Miles
Feb 1, 2014 22:19
10 yrs ago
1 viewer *
German term

herauskommen machen

German to English Art/Literary Idioms / Maxims / Sayings idiomatic German
From a novel I'm working on: "Und damit wandte sich YYY ab. XXX machte, dass er aus dem Büro herauskam."

Two characters, rivals for a girl, are discussing an unrelated situation. For XXX (but not for YYY), the situation is extremely uncomfortable. I understand this as XXX getting out of the office as fast as he can, as if the office is the place he'd least like to be at that moment.

Something like "XXX got out of there as fast as he could." Is my understanding of this line correct? Love to hear from some DE native speakers on this one.
Proposed translations (English)
3 +1 beat a hasty retreat
5 XXX saw to it, that he got out of there (the office).
3 +1 (here) get himself out of there
3 took off (in a hurry)
3 XX made a speedy exit
3 made himself scarse
References
machen, dass...

Discussion

Ramey Rieger (X) Feb 2, 2014:
Context and tone are vital to literary translations. When does the novel take place? That would determine the type of colloquialism. What type of character is the person in question? How does he speak? How would he SAY the term asked for? did he 'rush out'? go 'lickety split'? 'get his ass outta there'? 'hot foot it'? So far, your best bet is Sir Andrew's suggestion, but the surrounding tone is decisive.
Lancashireman Feb 1, 2014:
Either 'beat a hasty retreat' or 'slunk out'. Erich as a German native speaker could confirm.
Erik Freitag Feb 1, 2014:
Your interpretation is basically correct. The expression implies that the person leaves the room quickly, but without actually rushing or running.

Proposed translations

+1
2 hrs
German term (edited): machte, dass er ... herauskam
Selected

beat a hasty retreat

See Discussion Box
Peer comment(s):
agree Hans-Jochen Trost : Your proposal captures the meaning well.
1 day 42 mins
neutral Horst Huber (X) : Closer to "machte sich auf die Socken".
1 day 14 hrs
Enigmatic as always, Horst.
Something went wrong...
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Ta muchly, as my dad used to say. Ramey's right, of course, and this pretty much captures the tone of the language used in the novel. I was close to going with "got himself out of there," though..."
14 mins

XXX saw to it, that he got out of there (the office).

machte in this case, is akin to "made sure to" but common usage would make it "saw to it that"
Example sentence:

Because tickets were selling quickly, Jim saw to it that he got to the box office early.

Note from asker:
Thanks, Darin. Another good suggestion (sans comma, as others have pointed out), though I disagree with Ramey's comment that it's too literal. It's not, but it's also not the tone that I'm looking for.
Peer comment(s):
agree Ingeborg Gowans (X) : exactly: I also like An drew's suggestion: beat a hasty retreat which might be more suitable for a novel perhaps? It all depends on th style, of course
40 mins
agree Trudy Peters
1 hr
agree Susanne Rindlisbacher : And with efreitag's comment
1 hr
disagree Cilian O'Tuama : CL5 gets a disagree for German comma.
3 hrs
disagree Lonnie Legg : The purposefulness is less direct than the German (s.Johanna's comment)--and I also agree w.Cilian.
12 hrs
disagree Ramey Rieger (X) : Much too literal for a literary translation, and yes, I agree with Cilian's comment
14 hrs
neutral Hans-Jochen Trost : @Cilian: Of course you're correct about the comma, but why does that warrant a disagree on theproposed translation altogether?
1 day 2 hrs
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

took off (in a hurry)

Seems to me that in the sentence below the verb is used in exactly the same way as it is in your German sentence. Another good option would be "to make tracks"

''When I told him about this, he immediately took off from his office and toured the museum, calling me with a complete report."
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/1752/h-l-schlussel-m-d-my-dad...
Something went wrong...
9 hrs
German term (edited): XXX machte, dass er herauskam

XX made a speedy exit

-.-
Something went wrong...
+1
1 day 8 hrs

(here) get himself out of there

IMO this is "erlebte Rede". The expression "machen, dass" is more commonly used as a kind of command: "Mach, dass du hier raus kommst!". In the light of this the source sentence would be echoing a command to XXX, perhaps one he gives himself or one that he imagines YYY giving him.
Difficult to capture the flavour, but I wouldn't translate the "mach" at all.
Example sentence:

XXX got himself out of there right sharp.

Note from asker:
Thanks British Diana, also for the clear explanation. I ended up going with Andrew's suggestion, just for the tone, but it was a near thing.
Peer comment(s):
agree Horst Huber (X) : Should "the office" or "the place" be there?
8 hrs
Thanks, of course it might be "the place" not "there"
Something went wrong...
2 days 11 hrs

made himself scarse

As an option.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Cilian O'Tuama : scarse?
16 hrs
Scarce, of course.
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

1 hr
Reference:

machen, dass...

....implies a sense of urgency to whatever a person is doing/supposed to do
http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/6447/meaning-of-ma...

www.redensarten-index.de/suche.php?suchbegriff=~~Mach, dass...[]=rart_ou

In your text, it has the meaning of ”verduften” http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/verduften



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2014-02-02 00:18:16 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I meant to write "adds" urgency to whatever someone is doing, sorry.
Note from asker:
Thank you, Johanna.
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree Rosa Paredes
4 hrs
agree Edith Kelly
8 hrs
agree Lonnie Legg
10 hrs
agree British Diana
1 day 6 hrs
agree Lancashireman
2 days 23 hrs
Something went wrong...
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