French term
United Kingdom
More than 10 years' experience
Native in: English 
Works in: German to English, French to English, Polish to English
autant ... autant
Puis, il y a bien sûr le fatalisme, c'est important : *autant* mourir de quelque chose, *autant* mourir de ça plutôt que de faim, plutôt que d'être tué par une balle dans un conflit armé ; c'est aussi un discours que l'on entend évidement beaucoup trop souvent.
(ça refers to smoking)
I know autant ... autant is standard phrase, e.g. he is generous as much as she is miserly
but that does not really make sense here.
Here is my take:
Then, there is the fatalism, of course – this is important: you are going to die of something, so you may as well die of that rather than of hunger, rather than from getting killed by a bullet in an armed conflict.
Non-PRO (2): Tony M, Karen Stokes
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Proposed translations
as long as you are going to die of something anyway,
amongst numerous other options, depending on context, content, register etc etc.
| agree |
Tony M
: "might as well..." OMG, why on earth would you WANT to?! / So far only found IDF and Marseille... but they seem to be keeping them very secret...
0 min
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I was just thinking about whether or not to bother adding might. Might as well, huh? (am busy trying to find the Burger King location closest to Belgium...)/cause I had BK when I was in Germany and it was really good.
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Rachel Fell
: or "Since you are going to... you may as well..."
16 mins
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yup. lots of good options
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Colin Morley (X)
1 hr
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| agree |
Duncan Moncrieff
4 hrs
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Daryo
: wouldn't "as long as" imply that there is also the option NOT to do it, i.e. not to die? // "As long as we are going the same direction, we can travel together" wouldn't imply that we could also go in different directions?
5 hrs
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no /the word anyway takes care of it all. not doubt implied. you don't seem to understand what the English says. there isn't even the remotest hint that dying could be optional.
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chris collister
: You're going to die anyway, so you might just as well die of (smoking) as...
6 hrs
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Jocelyne Cuenin
: 2x"autant"= *2 commentaires*.//*1st* autant = I'd rather die of something... better die of something - like "would you rather die of something, or wither away slowly for no other reason than..."//C'est un exemple où on utilise "rather die of something,"
16 hrs
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Context: *autant* mourir de quelque chose, *autant* mourir de ça plutôt que de faim, plutôt que d'être tué par une balle dans un conflit armé/don't see any withering away and isn't that the same as dying anyway? who dies/withers away for no reason?
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Adrien Henry
17 hrs
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Anne Quillevéré
1 day 2 hrs
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France
Faithful& fast translations, Reliability
Native in: French
Works in: Arabic to French, French to Arabic, English to French, and 97 more.
[here] It's better to die from something
Autant mourir de quelque chose = C'est mieux de mourir de quelque chose
| agree |
RachidAmrani
: At least one should die for something, one has better to die of this (...?) rather than die of hunger or by a bullet in an armed conflict (war)
1 hr
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Thank you
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Belize
Near Native Proficiency in Source langua
Native in: English
Works in: Portuguese to English, Dutch to English, French to English
may as well
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RachidAmrani
: At least one should die for something, one has better to die of this (...?) rather than die of hunger or by a bullet in an armed conflict (war)
1 hr
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I would rather die from something,
rather...rather
This is my French try..
if we have to .... might as well ...
tant qu'à ..., autant ...
As in
"Conduire une voiture de sport
Et nous parlons d'une vraie voiture de sport, pas juste d'un Subaru bleue ou d'une Clio Williams. Parce que dans la vraie vie, c'est trop dangereux de conduire un bolide à pleine balle, mais, dans l'hypothèse de la fin du monde, piloter une Ferrari à mach 12 doit être un kiffe monstrueux (banal, mais monstrueux). Tant qu'à mourir étouffé par une nuée de moustiques, autant le faire à 280km/h, avec deux hawaïennes assises à droite...
[http://www.thebottomturn.fr/news/849-10-trucs-a-faire-fin-du...]
Puis, il y a bien sûr le fatalisme, c'est important : tant qu'à mourir de quelque chose, autant mourir de ça plutôt que de faim, plutôt que d'être tué par une balle dans un conflit armé ; c'est aussi un discours que l'on entend évidement beaucoup trop souvent.
=
if we have to die of something, we might as well die of smoking rather than ..
or, given that dying is not really optional..
as we have to die of something anyway, we might as well die of smoking [assumed to be pleasurable] rather than ..
Canada
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Native in: French 
Works in: French to English, English to French, French, and 1 more.
I would rather die from ... rather than ... (See details below.)
We might as well die from ... rather than hunger or a bullet in an armed conflict.
Discussion
Am I seeing what couldn't be there, or is it a plausible/possible option?
Le second autant exprime quelque chose dans la même veine, que tout le monde peut traduire sans problème.//
L'idée exprimée est que si on meurt à cause d'excès, au moins on sait à quoi s'en tenir, et on n'aura peut-être pas de regrets, car on aura bien profité de la vie. On se sera fait plaisir au lieu de se restreindre.
It is simply a list, where the first 2 items just happen to start with 'autant...'; they are not actually directly syntactically connected here.