Hair-shirt, muesli-eating Guardian readers.

In a speech at the U.K. General Election, Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat Leader, said about climate change: “'If it is simply for hair-shirt, muesli-eating Guardian readers to solve climate change, it ain’t going to solve the problem. We’re all stuffed ... we can make ourselves energy self-sufficient in renewable energy.” What would the Greek be for this strange sentence? As a matter of fact, a lot of Farron’s supporters are Guardian readers and Remainers!! Can “it ain’t going to solve the problem” be put into bad Greek and what would be the Greek for we’re all stuffed be?' :woot:

Hello, Theseus. I have no idea who Tim Farron is, but that’s a funny speech. Does “we’re all stuffed” means we’re fucked up, ruined etc? It seems so, but I’m not familiar with the expression. If yes, there are several Greek equivalent expressions, like:
Την πατήσαμε.
Την κάτσαμε.
Τον ήπιαμε.
Τη βάψαμε.
Τη γαμήσαμε... and many more.

Also, hair-shirt means self-punishing or something like this?

Πρώτα, λίγο hair shirt (που, όταν είναι επίθετο, πρέπει να γράφεται hair-shirt). Από το ODE, με επιλεγμένα παραδείγματα:

hair shirt
noun: A shirt of haircloth, formerly worn by penitents and ascetics.
adjective: Austere and self-sacrificing.
a hair-shirted existence advocated by eco-fundamentalists
Lowering taxes should be popular but in our perverted hair-shirt mentality we are meant to believe that low taxes are bad, high taxes good.’
These foods are, thankfully, less about the hair-shirt approach of pumpkin seeds and alfalfa sprouts and more about seductive products, such as the Feel Great Cranberry Muffins.
It starts off with the usual hair-shirt socialistic nonsense: spending money on holidays and a new kitchen is bad.
Although something tells me that there's probably a market for it amongst the shop's more hair-shirted customer base.
Historically the product of a theocracy, Scots are imbued with the most hair-shirted of Protestant work ethics of hard work and reliability, with guilt, until recently a key driving force.
The people who deserve our accolades for saving the planet are not the hair-shirted ones wandering around saying ‘Woe is us!’
The austerity is admirable but the effect of this hair-shirted self-punishment is too often not the revelation of a new affective range, but a dutiful boredom.
‘Ethical living’ was once the domain of hair-shirted hippies living in north Wales; now it has been adopted by the urban glitterati.
There is a fashionable guilt among many people in this country which prompts them to wear the evils of the Empire like a hair-shirt.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hair_shirt

Εδώ θα δούμε το βίντεο:

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...yn-bbc-debate-campaign-personal-politics-live

Neikos said:

Την πατήσαμε.
Την κάτσαμε.
Τον ήπιαμε.
Τη βάψαμε.

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Καλά είναι αυτά. Αν μιλούσε ελληνικά, δεν νομίζω ότι θα έλεγε «την πουτσίσαμε».

Και μια σεμνή απόδοση:

Αν περιμένουμε από τους αναγνώστες του Γκάρντιαν, με τις ασκητικές και εναλλακτικές απόψεις, να λύσουν το πρόβλημα της κλιματικής αλλαγής, δεν πρόκειται να δούμε λύση. Την έχουμε πατήσει.

Ι'm afraid Nickel that your translation does not convey fully the noun Guardian-reader to someone who knows that Guardian is a newspaper.
According to the dictionary:
a reader of the Guardian newspaper, seen as being typically left-wing, liberal, and politically correct.
So if I had to translate the above, I would omit the reference to the Guardian and use some other word to describe a left-wing, liberal, politically correct (arrogant, well-educated, hippie etc) person.
In this example Farron is saying that we must all do out bit for the environment, not rely on the few who have made eco-living their personal cause (which is not EVERY Guardian-reader, just a subsection).

Άμα περιμένουμε από τους χίπηδες να μας σώσουν, σωθήκαμε!

nickel said:

Καλά είναι αυτά. Αν μιλούσε ελληνικά, δεν νομίζω ότι θα έλεγε «την πουτσίσαμε».

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Ε καλά, προφανώς δεν ανέφερα το "τη γαμήσαμε" σαν πρόταση για το συγκεκριμένο πλαίσιο, απλώς να έχει μια ιδέα ο άνθρωπος για τις σχετικές εκφράσεις. Ούτε "τον ήπιαμε" θα έλεγε σε πολιτικό λόγο, εκτός κι αν είναι ο Άγγλος Ψαριανός. Όχι ότι δεν ακούμε και χειρότερα κάθε τόσο. Εδώ που τα λέμε πάντως, μάλλον "Την πουτσίσαμε" ήταν αυτό που πραγματικά ήθελε να πει και δεν έχει κι άδικο.

SBE said:

Άμα περιμένουμε από τους χίπηδες να μας σώσουν, σωθήκαμε!

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Εντάξει, έχεις περάσει στο επόμενο επίπεδο της ελεύθερης μετάφρασης. Θα σε λατρέψουν οι υποτιτλιστές!

...
Για το muesli-eating, η πρώτη ιδέα που κατέβασε η κούτρα μου μόλις το είδα ήταν οι λαπάδες, που διατηρεί κάπως την εικόνα και την ειρωνεία που νομίζω πως ήθελε να περάσει ο συντάξας, αλλά δεν αποδίδει τη χλεύη για την τρεντιά και τις άλλες παραδηλώσεις του μουσλοφάγου.

λαπάς: ... 3. (μτφ., για πρόσ.) α. νωθρός, πλαδαρός, μαλθακός· νερόβραστος: Πού να τρέξει αυτός ο λαπάς! β. άχρωμος, που δεν προξενεί καμιά εντύπωση ή ενδιαφέρον· νερόβραστος: Πού τον βρήκες αυτόν το λαπά και τον αρραβωνιάστηκες;

Αν περιμέναμε από τους ευαισθησιάρηδες που καταναλώνουν μούσλι και Γκάρντιαν...

Thanks to all for their suggestions. What quite does ευαισθησιάρηδες mean? 'The hypersensitive brigade'? 'The arty-farty types'? I'm looking for a good translation of this seemingly rare word. Thanks! :)

Theseus said:

... What quite does ευαισθησιάρηδες mean? 'The hypersensitive brigade'? ...

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That's more or less how I understand it. A trendy synonym comes to mind: "snowflakes".

And here is something that came to mind about Guardian readers, from a stand-up act I saw ages ago:
I asked my mother how to clean the windows and she said newspaper and vinegar, so I was standing there looking at my window with the Guardian in one hand and a bottle of balsamic in the other...

(Needless to say, I am a Guardian reader, I eat muesli but I can't stand any garment that may be rough or itchy, so no chance of me saving the world)

SBE said:

I asked my mother how to clean the windows and she said newspaper and vinegar, so I was standing there looking at my window with the Guardian in one hand and a bottle of balsamic in the other...

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:lol::lol::lol: