er dämmerte weg

thanks, Penguin.

We have a Poker tournament tonight and I am trying to translate Kenny Roger's Gambler into German for my boyfriend.:-)

who or what is Kenny Roger's Gambler? Sorry, never heard of it.

And one more, how do you translate "to break even" in the figurative sense. All of the translations I can find are financial.

how do you "break even" in the figurative sense? Winning as much as you lost? That would be financial as well, wouldn't it?

Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
'Cause ev'ry hand's a winner and ev'ry hand's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep."

And when he'd finished speakin', he turned back towards the window,
Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep.
And somewhere in the darkness the gambler, he broke even.
But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/rogers-ken...
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

I googled the lyrics and stand by "dämmerte weg" as well as maintaining that this is a financial meaning (unless you can explain to me precisely what else you think it means).

"And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep"

It is more referring to dying in his sleep I think. Actually the whole song is a metaphor. Yes, it is about poker, but also about the game of life, I think.

"er dämmerte weg" can also be used for someone dying, slowly falling unconscious and then simply being gone, and any of the translations for "to break even" can in my opinion also be used for the game of life