Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
Take the higher ground
French translation:
Surveille tes arrières
English term
Words travel worlds ...
Native in: French (Variants: Standard-France, Canadian) 
, Persian (Farsi)
Works in: English to French, Persian (Farsi) to French, French to English, and 4 more.
Take the higher ground
L'un vient d'aider l'autre dans une galère et au moment de se dire au revoir, l'échange est le suivant.
Man 1 : You ought to come for dinner sometime.
Man 2 : Two up, one back, right?
Man 1: Take the higher ground.
Comme ça j'aurais dit : "Vise plus haut" mais pas sûr. Je dis cela car l'homme 2 vient d'aider l'homme 1 dans une galère/bagarre avec un homme de main connu, ...
Après cet échange (2mn) l'homme 2 part en faisant signe de la main (au revoir).
Pas plus de contexte :(
| 3 | Surveille tes arrières |
Odette Grille (X)
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| 5 | Vise plus haut |
LouiseNorman (X)
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| 3 +1 | prendre les hauteurs |
B D Finch
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| 3 | Prends l'avantage |
Eva Le Pallec
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PRO (3): Odette Grille (X), Beatriz Ramírez de Haro, Daryo
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Proposed translations
Surveille tes arrières
Prends l'avantage
Vise plus haut
« Vise plus haut » reflète aussi bien le sens littéral que figuratif du terme « Take the higher ground ».
Ainsi, dans le contexte tant soit peu ironique du dialogue, la réplique « Vise plus haut » me semble tout à fait délicieuse !
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prendre les hauteurs
Héritée du XVIe et XVIIe siècle la stratégie militaire était une stratégie de ... Le général Dugommier détache 14000 hommes pour prendre les hauteurs du fort St ...
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Note added at 11 hrs (2018-11-19 20:50:46 GMT)
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Perhaps the rest of the text indicates whether or not the military analogy is being continued.
| agree |
Daryo
: that's what I see as the most probable // literally: to get to my house take the high ground. // BTW military are not the only one concerned with "high ground" - it's part of the basics of orienteering and/or finding your way off beaten tracks.
1 day 12 hrs
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Thanks Daryo. I did mean "take" in the sense of "conquer", not you take the high road and I'll take the low road.
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| neutral |
ph-b (X)
: S'il s'agit réellement d'instructions, plutôt « prendre/passer par le haut [courant])/les hauteurs [plus rare] ».
1 day 18 hrs
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Depends whether it's the same sort of military analogy or not.
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Discussion
@ Daryo
Yes, the whole movie is "more context" but that scene lasted 2mn and Man 1 never came back ! I said that there was nothing more I meant that there were no other words exchanged at that point and that this ended the scene.
Thank U all
HOWEVER, the specific (and almost invariable) common expression "2 steps forward and 1 step back" in this instance, and again, when talking about failures / successes at work, simply draws us to the more figurative interpretation.
HOWEVER, 'to take the moral high ground' is a very commong expression, and does (ptoentially) lead on from a discussion about success / failure at work.
You ***DO*** have more context: the whole movie, i.e. the whole script AND clues you can pick up while watching the whole movie. How much of it you could share is another matter.
One of them just got invited by the other to come to diner - the most basic practical aspect to take into account is HOW TO GET THERE.
When you try to arrange a meeting of any kind, do you go into discussions about the meaning of life, the age of the universe, and the strangeness of quantum physics or instead of looking at the stars you pay attention to the gutters?
Just my gut feeling - far far more context needed to be sure of anything.
I understand there is a certain element of 'recul' in that, but I don't think it's the key thrust (otherwise he might have said "take a step back from it", for example)