Glossary entry

Dutch term or phrase:

druk zakdoekjes uit elkaar rukkend

English translation:

busily fidgeting with tissues/ripping tissues apart

Added to glossary by yieto
Jul 28, 2008 20:35
15 yrs ago
Dutch term

druk zakdoekjes uit elkaar rukkend

Dutch to English Art/Literary Cinema, Film, TV, Drama
The context is a woman watching her beloved leave her at the end of a film; he leaves her, "druk zakdoekjes uit elkaar rukkend."
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): writeaway

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Proposed translations

50 mins
Selected

fidgeting with tissues

a very un-poetic/functional description by the author.....

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 53 mins (2008-07-28 21:28:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

well, to be very literal: she was fidgety pulling tissues apart....
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks to both Lianne and Sindy. I choose Lianne because "fidgety" best gets at what I think the author's intended image here is, although obviously "busily ripping apart handkerchiefs" a very close translation (but somehow oddly phrased, I agree). Thanks so much to everyone (to Tina as well)."
+1
55 mins

ripping apart paper hankies

an option...
Peer comment(s):

agree Tina Vonhof (X) : Preceded by 'busy'. Strange expression though, because you wouldn't rip them - you would cry or blow you nose in them.
1 hr
isn't that just so true.... Thanks Tina!
Something went wrong...
11 hrs

fervidly ripping up tissues

tissues are made from paper in the UK, hankies (or handkerchiefs) are usually cotton.
Something went wrong...
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search