Worlds Within Words – empire of lights

The whole picture is a “trace” of the past – as everybody in the know will immediately see. So here is my entry for the photo challenge at Paula’s Lost in Translation.

For the record: The makers of the Toy Photographers blog kindly invited me to contribute! I feel absolutely honoured. However, I do not link to my post directly because I think the whole blog is really worth a visit. And please do not miss the discussions in the comments sections – they are just as interesting!

Crack

05/05/201705/05/2017 Tobias M. Schiel7 Comments

Cum grano salis

28/04/2017 Tobias M. Schiel6 Comments

Cum grano salis, lit. taken with a grain/pinch of salt, fig. not to be taken literally, to be understood using your wit.

Since this whole series makes use of a very specific type of contrast (you know what I mean, right?), I thought I might as well enter it into Paleica’s Magic Motto Challenge: Contrasts. Please check out her site! You’ll find some beautiful contribtions there.

Auf einem schmalen Brett (Alternative Take)

24/04/201723/04/2017 Tobias M. Schiel6 Comments

Auf einem (ganz) schmalen Brett sein, lit. to be on a (very) narrow board, equiv. to be skating on thin ice, fig. to be wrong, to risk losing an argument

Auf einem ganz schmalen Brett

21/04/201720/04/2017 Tobias M. Schiel4 Comments

Auf einem (ganz) schmalen Brett sein, lit. to be on a (very) narrow board, equiv. to be skating on thin ice, fig. to be wrong, to to risk losing an argument

Waiting For the Penny to Drop

15/04/201715/04/2017 Tobias M. Schiel7 Comments

When Paula announced Thursday’s Special was “Waiting“, I immediately thought, “waiting for the penny to drop.” I could not get rid of the phrase until this morning when the penny finally did drop – with a little help from my wife. She also helped me out with an Irish penny, rendering this picture a bit more ironic, though it is for you to decide if is to be seen politically.

In line with my other pictures from this series, I would just like to add that we have the same phrase in German: “Warten, dass der Groschen fällt,” a Groschen being 10 Pfennig, which was our small change before Pfennige and pennies became cents.

Von der Rolle

31/03/201731/03/2017 Tobias M. Schiel4 Comments

Von der Rolle sein, lit. to be off the roll/reel, equiv. to have lost it, to be right out of it, to be all at sea; fig. to be beside oneself, to be (a little) off | Finally I come around to participating in one of Jennifer Nichole Wells‘ photo challenges, the “one word challenge:” this weeks’ word is film.

In Over Their Heads

20/03/2017 Tobias M. Schiel9 Comments

To be in over one’s head, lit. bis über den Kopf drinstecken, equiv. etwas wächst jemandem über den Kopf, fig. (English phrase) to be involved in a difficult situation that you cannot get out of

…and while I look at this picture, a German classic comes to mind: Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. It is about this magical broom not quite obeying the apprentice… Follow this link for this poem and its English translation.

Er sieht den Wald vor Bäumen nicht

03/03/201703/03/2017 Tobias M. SchielLeave a comment

Den Wald vor (lauter) Bäumen nicht sehen, lit. to not see the wood for (all) the trees, fig. to be unable to see the obvious (because one is too close or too caught up in the details)

Against All Odds

17/02/201717/02/2017 Tobias M. Schiel8 Comments

This was the original idea:

Jemandem den Boden unter den Füßen wegziehen, lit. to pull the ground from under sb’s feet, equiv. to pull the rug from under sb’s feet, fig. (German phrase) to threaten someone’s existence

…but it also looks like this guy is standing up on the cobblestone against all odds, so this also seems to be an appropriate contribution for the Weekly Photo Challenge.

Eureka! Mir geht ein Licht auf!

10/02/201713/02/2017 Tobias M. Schiel6 Comments

“A light dawns on me” is how we say eureka! in German.

I am happy to continue the “Worlds Within Words” series with a contribution for Thursday’s Special at Lost in Translation. Paula wished to see profiles – and I think based on her description and the etymology, these pictures can also be regarded as a mini study of the concept.

Auf seinem eigenen Stern

06/02/201706/02/2017 Tobias M. Schiel6 Comments

Er lebt auf seinem eigenen Stern means “he’s living on his own planet” – almost literally, since Stern is a star. The figurative meaning is the same in German and English.

So much for translating… This is my contribution for Thursday’s Special at Lost in Translation where you can pick a word from this list: radiant | alimentary | frontal | arboreal | remote. I picked the first one, and maybe the last.

And there is also an alternative take.