French term
éléments contraires
A CEO, discussing how his brand will fare in the current climate, says it has lived through other tough times, such as the first war in Iraq and SARS. He then says:
"Un drame, dans la mesure où nous étions démunis face à ces éléments contraires."
The "éléments" are clearly the war and SARS. "Contraires" presumably because they were contrary to doing good business. However, I can't put this into English!
Many thanks for your help.
Feb 18, 2009 13:08: writeaway changed "Field" from "Art/Literary" to "Bus/Financial"
Non-PRO (1): writeaway
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Proposed translations
adverse events
Native in: English 
, French
Works in: English to French, French to English, German to French, and 4 more.
(in the face of) such events
| agree |
MatthewLaSon
: Why not ? I said "factors weighing against us." The "drames" makes it clear that these events are "adverse" or "against them"
1 day 3 hrs
|
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
problems/difficulties/difficult times
OR, more generally:
in those difficult times
| agree |
emiledgar
52 mins
|
|
thanks Emil!
|
|
| agree |
Isabelle Berquin
1 hr
|
|
thanks Isabelle!
|
|
| agree |
B D Finch
1 hr
|
|
thanks BD!
|
controversial factors / elements
une idée.
| neutral |
Isabelle Berquin
: Nothing controversial here, anyone would agree these were difficult times
1 hr
|
United States
ATA-Certified FR to EN Translator
Native in: English (Variant: US)
Works in: French to English
challenging circumstances
these factors weighing against us
I think this would work.
éléments = factors
contraires= weighing agianst us/pitted against us
factor = one of the elements contributing to a particular result or situation
faced with these factors weighing against us
I hope this helps.
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