What is the translation for "жить захочешь, не так раскорячишься"?

Question

Since we seem to accept questions of the Russian-to-English format, I'd like to ask you helping me with the translation of "жить захочешь, не так раскорячишься". Which is a famous quote from a movie.

My best guess would be: You wanna live, you'll try harder than that.

Which doesn't seem to be even close to the spirit of the original quotation.

For meta discussion, see: http://meta.russian.stackexchange.com/questions/8/russian-to-english-questions — Shog9, Jun 15 '12 at 02:17

kotekzot · Answer 1 · 2012-06-14T06:24:47.813

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The phrase, as I understand it, means that you'll do whatever it takes to survive, no matter how degrading it may be.

A more emotional translation could be something like "You'd do worse if your life depended on it". "You'll do worse if you want to live" could also work, but it sounds like a threat.

edited Jun 14 '12 at 06:24

answered Jun 14 '12 at 00:51

kotekzot

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This is direct translation, and as such is obvious to the asker, and nigh everyone else knowing both languages. I think, what we need is to figure it out in colloquial or literary way to preserve the mood of the phrase. – theUg Jun 14 '12 at 04:46
theUg is right, it's like finding a best matching analogue of a proverb – Trident D'Gao Jun 14 '12 at 05:02
@theUg how about now? – kotekzot Jun 14 '12 at 06:24
I am more inclined now to approve this message. :) – theUg Jun 14 '12 at 07:02

What is the translation for "жить захочешь, не так раскорячишься"?

1 Answers1