The stress level can be high before Christmas — buying gifts and preparing family reunions. Here are a few German expressions to stay calm and relax during the year-end rush.
Unflappable, cool as a cucumber — German idioms on tranquility
Here are a few typical German idioms involving peace and quiet, and weathering the storm.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Lawson
Not easily ruffled
If you are not easily ruffled or upset, but keep your cool in difficult or hectic moments, this is how people would characterize you. "Die Ruhe weghaben" means to be relaxed and unflappable, which can have a negative slant if someone is too relaxed to react. "Die Ruhe selbst sein" is synonymous, and means to be "quiet itself" — the essence of quiet.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Lawson
Take a break
Literally, "In der Ruhe liegt die Kraft" means "strength lies in calmness." A reminder, perhaps, to slow down, take a moment to gather your wits, take a break and find new strength by focusing and concentrating
Image: Kevin Cho/sphotography/Colourbox
Make haste slowly
"Eile mit Weile" is a classic oxymoron illustrating a point by using self-contradiction: "make haste slowly." Or, as Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire allegedly used to say, Festina lente. If you are in too much of a hurry, you might overlook important details, and regret it later. Bottom line: haste makes waste, or slow and steady wins the race!
Image: Imago/Schöning
Calm before the storm
"Die Ruhe vor dem Sturm" (the calm before the storm) works in both German and English. It is the moment or time of peace and quiet before intense activity flares up — not a real thunderstorm with rain and hail, but when something takes place that you know was coming and "all hell breaks loose." You can easily imagine tourists about to overtake the as-yet peaceful beach above.
Image: picture alliance/ZB/J. Kalaene
Keep your calm
This is an admonishment: "Immer mit der Ruhe" means take it easy, don't panic, literally "keep your calm" concerning whatever task you need to tackle that is making you nervous and restless. Or the solution to a problem is eluding you because you can't think straight. The couple in the photo contemplating nature look like they are doing it just right: taking it easy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. J. Hildenbrand
Cushy situation
Literally, "eine ruhige Kugel schieben" translates as to "push a relaxed ball," a phrase that may very well go back to nine-pin bowling, a favorite German pastime. It doesn't take a lot to get the small ball rolling down the alley. The term means to take it easy, or to have a cushy job.
Image: picture-alliance/Geisler-Fotopress
Use it or lose it
After taking it easy, being calm, gathering strength and fortitude, you may appreciate a change of pace. Here again is an idiom that means the exact opposite: the German phrase "Wer rastet, der rostet" translates as: who takes a break, corrodes. In other words, "use it or lose it."
Image: picture-alliance/N. Schmidt
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In the weeks before Christmas, many Germans and people around the world long for calm moments, some peace and quiet.
Over the centuries, various statesmen and writers have praised the significance of taking time off.
"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop," is a quote attributed to Roman poet Ovid.
"The biggest enemy of quality is the hurry" is a quote accredited to Henry Ford, the American industrialist who founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, while American 20th-century writer John Steinbeck felt that clearly, "the art of relaxing is part of the art of working."
The interval, too, is a part of the music, said 20th-century Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, and Jonathan Swift, the Irish writer who wrote that famous 1726 prose satire "Gulliver's Travels," felt that "the best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman."
This is an updated version of a text originally published on December 25, 2019.
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