......dAn      ......a   construction

1.This construction creates repetitions ;

 a.by repeating same word ;

kulaktan  kulağa ---> from ear to ear

Haber kulaktan  kulağa yayıldı.

The news has spread [travelled] from ear to ear.

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Doğum oranı ülkeden ülkeye değişir.

The birth rate differs from one country to another.

 a.by repeating different words ;

Arabayı tepeden tırnağa kontrol ettiler.

literal meaning ; They checked the car from top to toe.

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 2. As time adverbial complement.

Onu akşamdan akşama görüyorum.

I see  him/her [only] in the evenings.

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Dayım ramazandan ramazana geliyor.

My uncle comes only in Ramadan month.[every Ramadan]

3. Adverbs of Place complement.

Kuşlar çatıdan çatıya uçuyorlar.

The birds are flying from roof to roof. [from one roof to another]

Diyardan diyara göç ettiler.

They migrated from [one] land to [another] land.

4. State complement.

Konuşurken renkten renge girdi.

He/She changed from colour to colour while talking.

[His/Her face changed from colour to colour while talking. [from embarrassment]

5. Idiomatic expressions.

Bize olan biteni inceden inceye anlattı.

He told us what happened meticulously. [with all details,carefully]

6. With particles -kadar, -dek, -değin

Yerden göğe  kadar haklısın.

Literally ; You are right from earth up to the sky.

             [You are absolutely right]

Funny that here ABL and DAT do not denote time limits but certain points in time. (I hardly understand myself what I am saying...) I mean it doesn´t mean the time between but only the cutoffs.

These are nice also. Almost the same thing but in a more simple manner:

zaman zaman

yer yer

kapı kapı

ev ev

ara ara

ara sıra.

In my opinion it still denotes a certain time which is "in evenings only". It doesnt give us 100 percent certain times [between times] however at least we definitely know that "the seeing" is happening in the evenings only.

In your examples , time is almost absolute unknown ----> zaman zaman = time to time, ara sıra = sometimes, occasionally.