Hello,
I am wondering how to translate do kɛra sa into English.
Here is some context of how it is used: karamɔgɔ bɛ ka damatɛmɛ . kalanden ci t’ o la . o bɛɛ n’ ta , kalan dɔnba , kelen-kelen . ɲɛmɔgɔw , an t’ a ko lajɛ , dɔ kɛra sa koyi !
When translating it word by word it’s like: a certain occured !
But I feel as though its meaning is more like: enough is enough.
aw ni ce
I ni ce, @malikdiallo !
I think that you are asking about “Dɔ kɛra sa!” in general and not in the specific example that you gave (which is a little hard to follow).
The plain expression is “Dɔ kɛra”, which I think can literally be better translated like this:
Dɔ kɛra!
“Some occurred!”
In the sentence, the determiner dɔ (Lit. “some”) is being used as a pronoun. Its understood noun (e.g., the answer to the question “some of what?” isn’t stated, but it generally refers to the events or matters under discussion.
In English, we don’t have a good expression that translates one-to-one. But here are some expressions that are kind of close in terms of literal meaning:
Contextually of course, you might want to translate it differently. For instance, your line “Enough is enough!” might work well in a specific context. For instance, if a parent were separating two siblings that were in a fight, they might say “Dɔ kɛra sa!” to say express the idea of “Ok, that’s enough!” (the literal meaning being more like “Some [fighting] has taken place!”). The particle sa just adds a nuance of frustration or exasperation.
Hope that helps!