Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Russian term or phrase:
«подсчитали - прослезились»
English translation:
had a tough hangover = ultimately they came to rue their win / the day they had won
Added to glossary by
James McVay
Nov 28, 2012 16:03
11 yrs ago
Russian term
«подсчитали - прослезились»
Russian to English
Art/Literary
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Успех демократов в 2009 г. был неожиданным прежде всего для них самих. Не могу сказать, что их постигло пресловутое «головокружение от успехов», но фактор «подсчитали - прослезились» налицо.
This is from an article about Japanese politics. "Демократы" is a referenceto the Democratic Party of Japan.
This is from an article about Japanese politics. "Демократы" is a referenceto the Democratic Party of Japan.
Proposed translations
1 hr
Selected
had a tough hangover = ultimately they came to rue their win / the day they had won
1. 'Their success was quite unexpected, but the hangover proved hard."
2. "Their success was quite unexpected, but eventually they came to rue their win / the day they had won."
3. If you want a specific reference to the tight budget constraints, something like "but when they looked in the coffers, they cried".
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Note added at 2 hrs (2012-11-28 18:31:00 GMT)
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PS. See discussion posts for details.
2. "Their success was quite unexpected, but eventually they came to rue their win / the day they had won."
3. If you want a specific reference to the tight budget constraints, something like "but when they looked in the coffers, they cried".
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Note added at 2 hrs (2012-11-28 18:31:00 GMT)
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PS. See discussion posts for details.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks for the time you spent on this question, Alexander."
20 hrs
“after the feast comes the reckoning” / “after feasting came the reckoning”
People must always pay the price of their excesses.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/35517876/Proverbs-and-their-mean...
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/35517876/Proverbs-and-their-mean...
Discussion
In the original idioms, "подсчитали" refers to the bill that one gets at the end of a party, so has a strong monetary / financial meaning. (Although, of course, it could mean counting other things depending on how the idiom is used in a particular instance.)
Within this context, it clearly has the standard negative meaning. Mine was a neat theory though, wasn't it? :)
Then, I guess, it simply means that with their unexpected success the Democrats "bit off more than they could chew", like you said. It wasn't as bad as a case of being "dizzy with success" (which, like CopperKettle mentioned, has a strong negative connotation), but the hangover after all the winning and the initial joy was hard.
В предвыборном манифесте ДПЯ наобещала избирателям намного больше, чем реально могла сделать в качестве правящей партии, ограниченной, помимо всего прочего, возможностями государственного бюджета. Одни популистские лозунги – вроде отмены платы за проезд по скоростным дорогам – были отрицательно восприняты самими избирателями, поскольку в результате такой меры местные бюджеты не досчитались бы весомых поступлений. Другие, вроде повышения размеров пособий на детей, легли непомерным бременем на госбюджет, внутренний дефицит которого и так достиг рекордного для развитых стран размера, в 2 раза перекрыв ВВП. Наконец, все карты смешало Великое восточнояпонское землетрясение 11 марта 2011 г., нанесшее стране колоссальный ущерб и потребовавшее несравненно больших сумм (в полном объеме их до сих пор невозможно точно подсчитать) на ее восстановление.
This follows immediately after «подсчитали - прослезились» in the same paragraph. Clearly, the election brought the DPJ a lot of grief. I think the author intends to say that they were initially happy with their victory but then came to realize they had bit off more than they could chew.
But, again, the author is saying that the success wasn't a landslide that can result in dizziness - but still elicited a few happy tears.
It looks like the author simply out-smarted himself / herself: wanted to use two well-known and apropos idioms, but has misused one of those. :)
Again, not that uncommon... If this had been Tolstoi or even Akunin, I would have had serious doubts about my scenario. But a journalist? Completely believable. You should read some of what today's high school seniors are writing!..
Something like this.
It's not uncommon for people to mix up their idioms and common expressions... And modern Russian journalists are not known for their exceptionally high language standards either.
Again, the phrase is certainly not intended to be used this way. But everything else, in my opinion, points to it being simply misused by this author.
- "Ели, пили - веселились, подсчитали - прослезились",
- "Все гуляли — веселились, подсчитали — прослезились",
- "Пировали, веселились, подсчитали, прослезились (и полезли за платком)", etc.
BTW, the source for the expression in the text is most definitely the idiom itself (one of its many variants), not the book's title.
This roughly means that partying was fun, but paying the bills - not so much. So usually this expression is used to refer to the sobering effect of looking at the consequences of one's actions.
However, it looks very probable that in this particular instance the Russian author has used this idiom incorrectly, taking the tears of sorrow to mean tears of joy, and so with the exact opposite meaning of the phrase's actual meaning. He is thus simply saying that although the Democrats' success wasn't as extreme as to warrant the use of the phrase "Dizzy with Success" (the title of an article by Joseph Stalin), they were pretty happy about the final numbers.
Thoughts?
I think in this case the author means that the number of votes that the democrats received was very close to the opposing party(parties) and there was nothing to be particularly happy about.