Provençal expression

duro que duraras, marcho que marcharas

Weather and Time

Literal translation

Last as long as you will last, walk as long as you will walk.

Meaning

as long as it lasts, it lasts

Explanation

This repetitive formula plays on tautology to express the indefinite continuity of an action: duro que duraras repeats the same verb, dura, to last, once as an imperative and once in the future tense, as if to say the thing will simply continue for as long as it continues, with no fixed end in sight. The same device recurs in marcho que marcharas, with marcha, meaning to walk or to function. This echoing construction, typical of oral proverbial style, mimics through its very form the repetition and duration it describes: it goes on as long as the thing it names. It is used to comment on a situation, a process, or a habit that persists with no clear end or reason, often with mild fatalism or amused resignation before what escapes one's control. The double meaning of marcha, to walk and to function, lets the formula apply equally to a person on the move and to a machine, a business, or a routine that keeps going.

Browse all 432 Provençal expressions

Other expressions on the same theme

tua lou tèmsto kill time siéu dins mi cinq crousto be between forty and fifty years old un an dins l'autreone year with another, on average A toujou un pet que li courrehe's always got some small nagging worry À cado còup, li toumbo un ueiit never happens Agué lou bàti-bàtito have one's heart racing