Literal translation
To go off into biberine
Meaning
to fade away, weaken, wither
Explanation
This expression describes a gradual weakening, whether of a business declining slowly toward bankruptcy or of an elderly person losing their faculties to the point of a kind of second childhood. The verb s'enana (to go away) carries the ordinary sense of leaving, of drifting off, here applied to a continuous decline that gradually removes a thing or a person from their full, whole state. The noun biberino, not found in our reference dictionaries, evokes by its very shape the image of a baby's bottle and hence a return toward infancy or toward a state of dependency and fragility, which fits well with the second sense given in context, that of an elderly person regressing. It is used of a business slowly falling apart, or of a person whose mind wanders with age, always with a note of sadness or genuine compassion. The register is familiar and emotionally warm.