Question to all english native speakers [help!]

[Cujo]

Im workin on translation of HL2 and here's my question:
Does term "to smell the ashes" really means to go and smell ashes or is it just idiom, metaphor?
Thanks in advance!

 

[[[LuCkY]]]

Im workin on translation of HL2 and here's my question:
Does term "to smell the ashes" really means to go and smell ashes or is it just idiom, metaphor?
Thanks in advance!

Doesn't mean anything, it isn't a known metaphor (to me) so I'm presuming the G-Man is just playing with his head.

Closest I can imagine...is that he's referring to how the world is in ruins, and Gordon is 'waking' up to the ashes (leftovers) of the world.

 

[vertthrasher]

Im workin on translation of HL2 and here's my question:
Does term "to smell the ashes" really means to go and smell ashes or is it just idiom, metaphor?
Thanks in advance!

It kind of relates to "wake up and smell the coffee" meaning "wake up and get ready" I think gman saying to wake up and smell the ashes was just a way for him to express to gordon that while hes been sleeping, the world has been crumbling (not litterally crumbling, but gettings screwed over by the combine)

 

[iainmoo]

wake up and smell the ashes is a metaphor, hard to explain though, sort of like "realise all the bad shit thats going on". Shit example, i tried my best :<.

 

[insertcoins]

IE. wake up and smell the coffee,

smell the ashes , look at the mess

 

[KagePrototype]

I always figured it to be look at the consequences; look what's happened while you've been away. The ashes of the Black Mesa incident.

 

[Lanthanide]

Jeeze, if you're trying to translate the game and you're already stuck on Gman's first speech, you're going to have a lot of trouble with Breen and the gman's ending.

 

[nagual678]

Jeeze, if you're trying to translate the game and you're already stuck on Gman's first speech, you're going to have a lot of trouble with Breen and the gman's ending.

you forgot IMO the best part : the secret cave vortigaunt's lines

 

[jmjneary]

they just took the pharse wake up and smell the roses and twisted it to mean that bad shit is happening

 

[Cujo]

I'm not alone in my efforts. Anyways thanks for concern and replys.

 

[KPeh]

The use of 'smell' is to an extent mocking (it might normally used in appreciating something, though clearly not in this phrase), and the remainder of the sentence - as people have said - refers to the pitful remains of what's left of the world/civilisation etc. IE: the aftermath. Ashes = after the fire (combine take over) has seemingly finished. Ashes suggest death. But it also suggests scattered remnants, burning embers, IE the resistance.

 

[Ennui]

good luck with translating all the Breen dialogue...