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calife à la place du calife

English translation: step into his shoes

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:calife à la place du calife
English translation:step into his shoes
Entered by: ormiston

18:34 Jun 4, 2020
French to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / from a novel
French term or phrase: calife à la place du calife
The speaker is being a little ironic. She doesn't fancy the job or appreciate the gesture, not really considering it's a promotion replacing her boss colleague.
.
She says to her girlfriends:
"J’allais oublier de vous annoncer la nouvelle : il est promu et je deviens calife à la place du calife. "

Can anybody come up with an equivalent expression?
ormiston
Local time: 19:43
step into his shoes
Explanation:
As in a sentence along the lines of: "lucky old me, I get to step into his shoes."
So not going for an equivalent phrase, but trying to get across the irony of what she's saying in a natural way.
Selected response from:

Philippa Smith
Local time: 19:43
Grading comment
I went for this, plus the 'lucky me'. The French allusion is familiar to most readers but I thought it best to play safe.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +6"He got promoted so this monkey gets to move one rung up the ladder"
SafeTex
4 +3the Grand Poobah to replace the Grand Poobah
Nicole Acher
3 +2the King is dead: long live the Queen!
Nicky Over
3 +2step into his shoes
Philippa Smith
4new religious & civil leader in place of the previous leader
Anais Devenish
2 +2[..] new boss, same as the old boss.
Wolf Draeger


Discussion entries: 5





  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
the King is dead: long live the Queen!


Explanation:
The only thing I can think of - the idea of replacing one holder of a role with another? Although I realise that it's not the same tone as the French phrase, with the reference to Iznogoud.

Example sentence(s):
  • ... he has been promoted - the King is dead: long live the Queen!
Nicky Over
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:43
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Elisabeth Richard: I like it. However, to make it clearer, mabye something like: the king is dead - you're looking at the new queen???
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Elisabeth
agree  Eliza Hall: What Elisabeth said -- slight tweak needed, but this is a good idea.
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Eliza
neutral  SafeTex: Nice try indeed but too hard to tweak as the King was promoted (didn't die).
11 hrs
  -> Thanks, SafeTex
agree  Ben Gaia: I think this is the equivalent in English, though it can remain "The King is dead, long live the King" without adversely affecting the gender confidence of the speaker.
1 day 48 mins
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
step into his shoes


Explanation:
As in a sentence along the lines of: "lucky old me, I get to step into his shoes."
So not going for an equivalent phrase, but trying to get across the irony of what she's saying in a natural way.

Philippa Smith
Local time: 19:43
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 48
Grading comment
I went for this, plus the 'lucky me'. The French allusion is familiar to most readers but I thought it best to play safe.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Wolf Draeger: I like "lucky me" to convey the irony; maybe "gets to take his place"?
22 hrs
  -> Thanks Wolf!
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: "lucky old me, I get to step into his shoes."
2 days 15 hrs
  -> Thanks Yvonne!
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +6
"He got promoted so this monkey gets to move one rung up the ladder"


Explanation:
Hello
I liked the "King is Dead" attempt but can it be made to work? I'm not sure as the bloke was promoted.
She gets his job but she is not keen so for me it's like the monkeys climbing up the ladder.
Other monkeys are still higher up to shit on you and you are still clambering, albeit just a bit higher up

SafeTex
France
Local time: 19:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Sophie Cherel: I like this, the register seems more appropriate than the otherwise satisfying "king is dead" answer
7 hrs
  -> Thanks
agree  Rebecca Reddin
13 hrs
  -> Thanks Rebecca
agree  philgoddard: I think this fits the context perfectly.
17 hrs
  -> Thanks Phil
agree  Verginia Ophof
1 day 1 hr
  -> Thanks Verginia
agree  Chris Pr: Very good, maybe a wee tad lengthy: "...so this monkey (or mug) gets bumped up one rung higher." ??
1 day 22 hrs
  -> Thanks Chris and I like the shorter version too
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: with shorter version ...so this monkey (or mug) gets bumped up one rung higher."
2 days 12 hrs
  -> Thanks Yvonne. Hope the asker sees that people like the shorter version
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7 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
the Grand Poobah to replace the Grand Poobah


Explanation:
I think this conveys the ironic tone of the newly promoted person, with a bit of humor.

Nicole Acher
United States
Local time: 13:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  SafeTex: I have a suggestion up too but this still deserves an agree. Closer to the original French yet sounds fine in English
4 hrs
  -> Thank you, SafeTex!
agree  Rebecca Reddin
11 hrs
  -> Thank you, Rebecca!
neutral  philgoddard: I'm not sure most people will understand this reference.
15 hrs
  -> What I like is that the way it sounds kind of indicates the meaning, even if one has not heard it before.
agree  Chris Pr: I like it too, also with new PB & old PB....
1 day 20 hrs
  -> Thanks, Chris, good suggestion.
neutral  Yvonne Gallagher: yeah I don't think "poobah" would be understood by many?
2 days 10 hrs
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13 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
new religious & civil leader in place of the previous leader


Explanation:
He is promoted so I move into his/her position.
Caliph = The civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth.

Anais Devenish
Australia
Local time: 01:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 3
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +2
[..] new boss, same as the old boss.


Explanation:
This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but here goes anyway. The irony in the FR expression is very much a cultural insider joke if the speaker isn't in fact keen on her supposed promotion—like Iznogoud finding out that being Caliph isn't so great after all.

It sounds like she'll still be fairly low in the food chain, hence her lack of enthusiasm in part, I guess?

"Big news" is meant to convey some of the irony, and if possible or appropriate you could perhaps add something like "Yay" or "Big whoop" afterwards, but at the risk of losing subtlety.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 hrs (2020-06-05 11:15:02 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Don't mean to split my answer in two, but perhaps "greasy pole" might also work in your situation:
" [...] he gets a move-up, I get his job, that's the greasy pole for you."
" [...] he got a promotion, I got his old job, so much for the greasy pole."

Hard to tell if the speaker is half-hearted about her new title or the job itself, but I imagine the point is to convey her feeling that moving up in the world isn't all it's cracked up to be, whether in general or in her own case.

Example sentence(s):
  • I almost forgot to tell you the big news: he got promoted, so I'm the new boss, same as the old boss.
  • Big news, I almost forgot: he moved up and so you're looking at the new boss, same as the old boss.

    Reference: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/who/wontgetfooledagain.html
Wolf Draeger
South Africa
Local time: 19:43
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 32

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Ben Gaia: Yes, a modern take on "the king is dead".
23 hrs
  -> Ta.
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: would also work
2 days 15 hrs
  -> Ta.
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