Dunia tak selebar daun kelor.

English translation: The world is bigger than your backyard.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Indonesian term or phrase:Dunia tak selebar daun kelor.
English translation:The world is bigger than your backyard.
Entered by: Catherine Muir

05:09 Apr 24, 2012
Indonesian to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / early 20th Century Indonesian novel
Indonesian term or phrase: Dunia tak selebar daun kelor.
I know that this is a common expression which is similar in meaning, I think, to the English expression 'it's a small world.' Am I correct?
Catherine Muir
Australia
Local time: 04:06
The world is bigger than your backyard.
Explanation:
I'm building on Ibu Rosmeilan's explanation and trying to express it with an equivalent English saying.

Selected response from:

David Andersen
Australia
Local time: 03:06
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4It's not a small world
Rosmeilan Siagian
3The world is not not as wide as moringa leaves
Regi2006
3The world is bigger than your backyard.
David Andersen
3the world is wider than your ears and eyes
ErichEko ⟹⭐


Discussion entries: 6





  

Answers


30 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
The world is not not as wide as moringa leaves


Explanation:
Just a suggestion

Regi2006
Indonesia
Local time: 00:06
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in IndonesianIndonesian
PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: This is a literal translation but, being an idiom, the translation is never literal.

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51 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
It's not a small world


Explanation:
No, Catherine.
It's the opposite.
The proverb "dunia tak selebar daun kelor" means "it's not a small world".
It also means that we do not have to be desperate with our life since other options are still available.



    Reference: http://bahasa.kemdiknas.go.id/kbbi/index.php
    Reference: http://id.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dunia_tak_selebar_daun_kelor
Rosmeilan Siagian
Indonesia
Local time: 00:06
Native speaker of: Native in IndonesianIndonesian
PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: Rosmeilan, saying that the world isn't (even) as wide as a leaf means that it is very, very small indeed, not the opposite, as you suggest.

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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
The world is bigger than your backyard.


Explanation:
I'm building on Ibu Rosmeilan's explanation and trying to express it with an equivalent English saying.



Example sentence(s):
  • An Orphan Outreach internship is about learning that the world is bigger than your backyard, breaking out of comfort zones

    Reference: http://mnnonline.org/article/14982
    Reference: http://transsouth.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/the-world-is-bigg...
David Andersen
Australia
Local time: 03:06
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 8
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks, David, but I think the speaker was coming from the opposite direction, i.e., that the world is a very small place. In this instance, he had just found out that the girl he was in love with was actually his long-lost stepsister.

Asker: As I indicated in the discussion, I think -- after reading all the discussions -- that your answer is closest to the mark, in the sense that he should lift his sights and cast his net wider, because 'there are plenty more fish in the sea.' Many thanks.

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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
dunia tak selebar daun kelor
the world is wider than your ears and eyes


Explanation:

I thought there is a similar metaphor in English. Just couldn't remember, so I pirate David Lange's poetry. Ears and eyes are human's most prolific sensors; still they are nowhere near capturing all chances and opportunities.

Ref: http://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/retakes-1/
The Circle Widens, a villanelle:
The circle widens as a man grows wise.
He comes to know what is beyond the veil.
The world is wider than the ears and eyes




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Note added at 3 hrs (2012-04-24 08:41:16 GMT)
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Hi Catherine, tidak selebar daun kelor refers to the opposite of it's a small world. It means it's no small world (with no, not not). Reading the context of the saying in your text (at comment to David's answer), it seems the boy has to learn more Indonesian proverbs. The phrase itself is said to men/women who is left by his/her lover (mostly by betrayal), so the mother/father will say: "Dunia tidak selebar daun kelor. Masih banyak perempuan/laki-laki seperti dia. Cari lagi sajalah."

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Note added at 3 hrs (2012-04-24 08:42:25 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Erratum: The phrase itself is FREQUENTLY said ....

ErichEko ⟹⭐
Indonesia
Local time: 00:06
Native speaker of: Native in IndonesianIndonesian
PRO pts in category: 48
Notes to answerer
Asker: Yes, Erich, the English metaphor is 'it's a small world'. I once heard someone say 'the world is a handerchief', meaning that you can hold it in the palm of your hand. I once had a chance encounter with someone I hadn't seen in years, who happened to be coming up an escalator at Senayan Plaza just as I happened to be walking past. The odds of something like that happening, since I was only in Jakarta for that day, and if I hadn't happened to be at that precise spot at that particular moment, we wouldn't have seen each other. When I saw him I said, "It's a small world, isn't it!" which is what I believe is meant by this expression.

Asker: Oh, now I see what you mean! In the context of unrequited love, the English equivalent would be 'There are plenty more fish in the sea." This is precisely the context in this story, a novel written c. 1900 and edited by Pramoedya.

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