I suppose you could try something fairly literal like:

“We can’t just swing hand over hand from one lockdown to the next.”

I don’t think it works, though, because the E. idiom isn’t used figuratively in the way the G. is.

At the moment I can’t think what would be a more natural and idiomatic way of putting it.

(“brachiate” wouldn’t be understood by many people and it isn't used figuratively.)

Ah, ok, danke Bion !

What does it mean?

Struggle - meaning that we have to work really hard to get through life before the next lockdown arrives?

Totter - meaning that we are so exhausted from the last lockdown that we can hardly stay on our feet, so almost "fall" into the next one?

Shimmying can be a kind of dance, which would presumably be too much fun.

It also means moving along while sitting down, e.g. as you are too afraid to stand up, but that still implies that you actively want to get somewhere.

Or could it mean "cautiously pick our way"?

"If you pick your way across an area, you walk across it very carefully in order to avoid obstacles or dangerous things.

The girls were afraid of snakes and picked their way along with extreme caution. "

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/...

Nein, #6 ist es nicht.

The quality of my guesses would improve considerably with even the tiniest amount of information as to the meaning in German.

Zu #8

Bin schon am Schreiben...

Wenn man sich von einem Lockdown zum nächsten hangelt, schafft man es nur so gerade, schlimme Folgen zu vermeiden. Der Begriff hat etwas von "beinahe" und von "schwierig", von "gut festhalten müssen und gleichzeitig abzurutschen drohen"

Something like "hanging on by the skin of my teeth"?

I understand it roughly to mean "make it up as we go along", no clear plan ahead, "fly by the seats of our pants". BTWDIK

Or something like penguin's, yes.

Vielleicht wäre ein Beispiel mit "Ich hangele mich von einem Gehaltsscheck zum nächsten" anschaulicher als das im OP. 😉

Es mit viel Mühe knapp bis zum nächsten 'Station' (in meinem Beispiel der Scheck) schaffen, wo man etwas Ruhe hat, bis es wieder mit Anstrengung weitergeht.

Im OP vermutlich gemeint: Lockdown - Lockdown wird aufgehoben - Infektionszahlen steigen wieder an - Lockdown... ohne grundsätzlich etwas an der Ursache der steigenden Infektionszahlen zu ändern?

#11 is even better.

We could combine it and say "fly along by the skin of our pants" 😉

PS: Ich war zu spät. Egal.

Wieso egal? Das ist doch auch eine passende Erklärung.

Wie wäre es denn einfach mit "to struggle from one x to the next"?

Nice ideas. "By the seat of our pants" means that it's really hard, but you're skilled enough to get through it and then give a cheery wave like a World War I pilot - phew, chaps! Whereas "by the skin of our teeth" also means that you've struggled hard, but makes it sound a bit more like good luck that you made it in the end. Which is closer?

Stumble, falter, totter or lurch from one lockdown to the next would also suggest that you were so knackered by the last lockdown that you hardly had the strength to make it to the next one. You could then make it e.g. "stumble exhausted from...", "stumble dazed from ..."

#18 Yes, I saw that the dictionaries have nothing on the figurative meaning. Typical!

Thank you for all the responses

# 13 - I was also thinking that - like Tarzan swinging from vine to vine.

But reading all the comments, I get the impression that "hangeln" is not so easy.

Über eine Google-Suche "from one lockdown" findet man noch folgende Varianten:

lurch

teeter

bounce

aimlessly drift

stagger

Das "aimlessly" gefällt mir ganz gut, vielleicht in Kombination mit "stumble" oder "stagger".

Re ##23 und 24

Aimlessly and endlessly stagger ?? 😉

(Oder ist das zu viel?)