Du lehnst an der Mauer....

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It is part of a submitted essay for a literary competition. It is written in the present tense
and in a descriptive tone. For this reason I think the translation 'You lean on the wall' with the
'simple present' is more appropriate than the 'present progressive' >'I am leaning on the wall'

The present progressive stresses the temporary aspect too much, therefore not appropriate.
Just would like get your feedback as to what you think.

It is in the 3rd paragaph and is part of this sentence:........drehst dir eine Zigarette und ich trete nah an dich heran

Proposed translations (Englisch)

4 +2	you lean on the wall	David Hollywood
3 +1	As you're leaning against the wall...	Michael Martin, MA

Discussion

Ramey Rieger (X) Aug 19, 2018: Hi Alfred Weis IT's true! We need the surrounding context, especially in a literary text. Absolutely vital. Tone, atmosphere and rhythm determine the translation.
Wendy Streitparth Aug 18, 2018: It would help if you could give us the full sentence with this phrase in it. At the moment I tend to disagree with your comments on the tense, but if we had the full sentence and maybe a bit more that might change.

Proposed translations

7 Stunden

David Hollywood

18075 answers

Native in Englisch

Selected

you lean on the wall

perfectly ok in your context

you lean on the wall, roll a ciggie etc. ok

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Note added at 7 hrs (2018-08-19 02:53:37 GMT)
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sounds like a sequence of events so ok the way you have it

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Note added at 7 hrs (2018-08-19 02:56:43 GMT)
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but will depend on whether you're "painting a picture" or just describing a series of events

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Note added at 7 hrs (2018-08-19 03:02:18 GMT)
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but as Henry Hinds used to say (God bless him) CONTEXT

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Note added at 7 hrs (2018-08-19 03:03:53 GMT)
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Henry was a brilliant translator in Spanish-English

Peer comment(s):

neutral	writeaway : and obviously this is another option. who knows without seeing more of the (con)text. 5 Stunden
	I agree so let's see if it's forthcoming
agree	Lancashireman : Here's a vote for 'on' as opposed to 'against' (= trying to stop it falling over). George Formby would also approve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEymZ3rXOmc 20 Stunden
	thanks L but as Henry would have said "contexto" and Alice is right to keep us straight so let's see if we get more context
agree	Björn Vrooman : You cannot treat a poem as if it were ordinary speech. Poets prefer the simple present, as far as I'm aware. Here's an article about it: https://www.jstor.org/stable/461592 1 Tag 5 Stunden
	thanks Björn

4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."

59 Min.

Michael Martin, MA

Vereinigte Staaten

3979 answers

Native in Deutsch & Englisch

Works in field

As you're leaning against the wall...

As you're leaning against the wall, rolling a cigarette, I'm stepping right up to you.

If the purpose is to draw readers in and get their attention, I would consider using progressive tense. Compare with passage below:

"It’s approaching 3PM. You’re leaning against the wall outside the meeting room, bracing yourself for the sheer boredom and monotony of the coming hour. Sigh.

Each week, you sit down with your manager and, regrettably, you slowly plod through a status update for each of your projects while she makes notes on her laptop..."
http://theengineeringmanager.com/growth/keeping-your-1-to-1s...