Untranslatable

[NoJo]

Polyglots, post your untranslatable sayings here. And unless you're as severe as my grandmother, try to translate them in English for us idiots.

(My grandmother, whenever anyone asked where she'd been after she returned home, would always answer "Na fontanke vodku pil").

Edit: Which my mother tells me means "To the village pump, for vodka". -- see what I mean about untranslatable?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

"Don't hock mir in tchynik!"

Means "Don't bother me." But literally means "Don't bang in a teapot!"

When I was little and I'd hear adults say this in Yiddish, I'd get confused by the "tchynik's" similarity to "vagina". "Hock" is another Yiddish word for "fuck," of course, so I guess I thought it meant, "Don't fuck in my vagina!" Which makes more sense.

The Yiddish word "Nu" has about 33 different meanings, from "Well?" or "So?' to "Aha!" or "I warned you!" or "There, there, there"

 

[cantdog]

You'll have to look in yenim's pipik.

When first I traveled to Québec I heard the word tabernac being used oddly. It took a while to understand they were using it as a swear word. Tabernacle! just meant Fuck!

 

[McKenna]

gezellig

It's a word that means someting like "cozy". It's used to describe a certain atmosphere more than anything. Like if you walk into a traditional Dutch pub and it feels cozy and right and "Dutch", you say "Wat gezellig!" The same can be said for intimate parties or dinner with friends. "Een gezellige avond" is a "comfy night". You'd say it in reply to something like "So how was dinner last night with Jan?"


"Het was een gezellige avond." (It was a cozy/comfy evening.)

 

[Andreina]

Chvostek Dreieck (Chvostek Triangle)

if you don't close the buttons of your shirt correctly then you have this wee triangle just above the belt where you can see the skin... well, and that's the Chvostek Triangle.
It got its name from a rather absent minded Professor at the University of Vienna.

 

[Andreina]

gezellig

It's a word that means someting like "cozy". It's used to describe a certain atmosphere more than anything. Like if you walk into a traditional Dutch pub and it feels cozy and right and "Dutch", you say "Wat gezellig!" The same can be said for intimate parties or dinner with friends. "Een gezellige avond" is a "comfy night". You'd say it in reply to something like "So how was dinner last night with Jan?"


"Het was een gezellige avond." (It was a cozy/comfy evening.)

we have the same word in german, only we write it gesellig
in austrian german we would say gemütlich, and in my austrian german dialect gmiatlich

 

[cantdog]

we have the same word in german, only we write it gesellig
in austrian german we would say gemütlich, and in my austrian german dialect gmiatlich

I know gemütlich. The meaning I have in my head for it is very much like McKenna's gezellig, except the feeling is not 'very Dutch' so much as 'very bourgeois and comfortable.' Which may be the same thing!

 

[NoJo]

Chvostek Dreieck (Chvostek Triangle)

if you don't close the buttons of your shirt correctly then you have this wee triangle just above the belt where you can see the skin... well, and that's the Chvostek Triangle.
It got its name from a rather absent minded Professor at the University of Vienna.

That's great. But it sounds a lot dirtier in Austrian.

 

[CopyCarver]

gezellig

It's a word that means someting like "cozy". It's used to describe a certain atmosphere more than anything. Like if you walk into a traditional Dutch pub and it feels cozy and right and "Dutch", you say "Wat gezellig!" The same can be said for intimate parties or dinner with friends. "Een gezellige avond" is a "comfy night". You'd say it in reply to something like "So how was dinner last night with Jan?"


"Het was een gezellige avond." (It was a cozy/comfy evening.)

My Dutch ancestors also seem to have contributed a few that are wordier and less decipherable. Those that can easily be translated, but seem to lose a little something in the process include:

“Lekker is slechts een vinger lang.”
(Tasty is just one finger long.)

“Het regent pijpenstelen”
(It’s raining pipestems.)

“Al regende het varkens, je kreeg er borstel van.”
(Even a rainstorm of pigs doesn’t provide a brush.)

“Ik bid niet voor bruine bonen.”
(I refuse to pray if beans are brown)

“De duivel schijt altijd op de grootste hoop.”
(The devil always shits atop the largest pile.)

“Spijkers op laag water zoeken.”
(Look for nails at low tide.)

And then there is the almost universal insult hurled at soccer referees who make wrong calls:

“Hi, ha, hondenlul!”
I once asked a Dutch university professor to translate this one. He thought for a moment, puffed on his pipe, and answered: “One can’t translate it, actually, but I shouldn’t think you’ll ever have a pressing need to do so.”

 

[NoJo]

My Dutch ancestors also seem to have contributed a few that are wordier and less decipherable. Those that can easily be translated, but seem to lose a little something in the process include:

“Lekker is slechts een vinger lang.”
(Tasty is just one finger long.)

“Het regent pijpenstelen”
(It’s raining pipestems.)

“Al regende het varkens, je kreeg er borstel van.”
(Even a rainstorm of pigs doesn’t provide a brush.)

“Ik bid niet voor bruine bonen.”
(I refuse to pray if beans are brown)

“De duivel schijt altijd op de grootste hoop.”
(The devil always shits atop the largest pile.)

“Spijkers op laag water zoeken.”
(Look for nails at low tide.)

And then there is the almost universal insult hurled at soccer referees who make wrong calls:

“Hi, ha, hondenlul!”
I once asked a Dutch university professor to translate this one. He thought for a moment, puffed on his pipe, and answered: “One can’t translate it, actually, but I shouldn’t think you’ll ever have a pressing need to do so.”

I totally love those. Especially the one about raining pipestems. Conjours up Magritte.

 

[CopyCarver]

I totally love those. Especially the one about raining pipestems. Conjours up Magritte.

It really does. Considering Magritte's love of food, I suspect he could supply quite a pile for the devil.

 

[Guest]

I totally love those. Especially the one about raining pipestems. Conjours up Magritte.

Ditto. My fave: "Tasty is just one finger long." Reads like Japanese advertising.

Love this thread but have nada to offer. My Spanish maxims are nowhere near as weird as those above.

Thanks, Perdita

 

[CopyCarver]

Ditto. My fave: "Tasty is just one finger long." Reads like Japanese advertising.

Love this thread but have nada to offer. My Spanish maxims are nowhere near as weird as those above.

Thanks, Perdita

"Janglish" does indeed open the door to another dimension. I have a friend who bought a Japanese chainsaw. Trying to warn users of the danger of drop-starting the saw, the owner's manual said:

"Dropstartery of chain sawing may be many hurtful."

 

[Andreina]

Hirnwixer (noun)
hirnwixen (verb)

translation: brainwanker, brainwanking

it's when you and another person (actually, it is possible to it alone as well, but usually you do it with someone else) imagine something. it's not necessarily something sexual... like "dreaming about a castle somewhere in scotland, etc etc"... just some kind of weird story spinning

 

[Guest]

"Janglish" does indeed open the door to another dimension.

I had not heard that term, a bit ugly to the ear, eh? One of my brothers lived in Japan for 17 years so I heard lots of funny translations from him.

Perdita

 

[CopyCarver]

I had not heard that term, a bit ugly to the ear, eh? One of my brothers lived in Japan for 17 years so I heard lots of funny translations from him.

Perdita

Seriously ear-ugly. I'm told the term was coined as a perjorative by Japanese who resent the effect that English is having on the Japanese language.

BTW, I just remembered an old Appalachian maxim that proves that English doesn't always "translate" intelligibly either:

"Shagbundy plus 2 equals 8 and you gotta carry 14."
It was still in use by elderly people in the early 1980's in eastern Kentucky (may still be) but younger people had no idea what it meant.

 

[Andreina]

"a schöne leich'" ..... "a beautiful/wonderful corpse"

something you would say in austria after a nice funeral. yes, we do have a certain affection when it comes to funerals. we love pompous funerals
corpse in this sense refers to the funeral, not to the corpse as such, as we don't have open coffins here

 

[NoJo]

Samandiriel is a schöne leich.

 

[Andreina]

Samandiriel is a schöne leich.

who?

 

[Guest]

"a schöne leich'" ..... "a beautiful/wonderful corpse"
something you would say in austria after a nice funeral. yes, we do have a certain affection when it comes to funerals. we love pompous funerals

Andreina, I don't know you, but hello! My brother who lived in Japan has lived in Wien for several years now (married a Viennese) and I've visited him twice. When I was there I thought of death often, everywhere, partly due to my preparatory readings, and my own dark bent, but there it seemed subliminally significant—embedded, engraved—rather than out and part of life (as with Mexicans).

I visited the Kaisergruft, an inspiringly dark tourist site. The detailed grotesquery of the tombs and caskets was majestic, a solid theatrical nightmare of stone and bronze frozen in dulled space for viewing by hushed visitors, punctuated by the odd profusion of color and sweet to acrid scent of strewn flowers breathing their last. Baby-sized caskets decorated with embossed skull-masks, and other baroque funereal accoutrements, were particularly horrific. I recall one such ornate box, alone on the cold stone floor, to the side of the grander displays—an orphaned petite monument to grief.

Kaiserin Elizabeth’s grandiose casket was almost completely covered in flower arrangements in varying stages of decay. It seemed fitting, even assuring, that Sissi had received most of the recent tributes.

Awk! You've made me miss Vienna. Danke.

Perdita

 

[NoJo]

who?

She posts here, she has a cute undead avatar. Ignore me. I lust after her bloodless body , but it's futile, she just gives me the cold shoulder.

 

[Andreina]

Andreina, I don't know you, but hello! My brother who lived in Japan has lived in Wien for several years now (married a Viennese) and I've visited him twice. When I was there I thought of death often, everywhere, partly due to my preparatory readings, and my own dark bent, but there it seemed subliminally significant—embedded, engraved—rather than out and part of life (as with Mexicans).

I visited the Kaisergruft, an inspiringly dark tourist site. The detailed grotesquery of the tombs and caskets was majestic, a solid theatrical nightmare of stone and bronze frozen in dulled space for viewing by hushed visitors, punctuated by the odd profusion of color and sweet to acrid scent of strewn flowers breathing their last. Baby-sized caskets decorated with embossed skull-masks, and other baroque funereal accoutrements, were particularly horrific. I recall one such ornate box, alone on the cold stone floor, to the side of the grander displays—an orphaned petite monument to grief.

Kaiserin Elizabeth’s grandiose casket was almost completely covered in flower arrangements in varying stages of decay. It seemed fitting, even assuring, that Sissi had received most of the recent tributes.

Awk! You've made me miss Vienna. Danke.

Perdita

next time you come to vienna you definately have to visit the catacombs underneath st stephens. it's fantastic, if a bit spooky.

we really do have a special affection when it comes to death. we love our graveyards, we love to talk about death, our funerals are usually minutely planned. death and vienna go hand in hand... and i don't think anywhere else you'd find as many morbid jokes about dying. we laugh about death because we sort of appreciate it. it's weird. we are weird. lovely but weird.

 

[Andreina]

She posts here, she has a cute undead avatar. Ignore me. I lust after her bloodless body , but it's futile, she just gives me the cold shoulder.

in that case it would be better to say


"sie hot mi au'g'lahnt g'loss'n"

which would translate "she left me leaning there" meaning: she's ignoring me


(note: this is not necessarily german but austrian german; your average german wouldn't understand it)

 

[Andreina]

"mir geht da reis"
"I'm having the rice/I can feel the rice/..." you can't really translate it..... but it means: I'm having fear ... I'm fearing something

 

[Guest]

next time you come to vienna you definately have to visit the catacombs underneath st stephens. it's fantastic, if a bit spooky.

we really do have a special affection when it comes to death. we love our graveyards, we love to talk about death, our funerals are usually minutely planned. death and vienna go hand in hand... and i don't think anywhere else you'd find as many morbid jokes about dying. we laugh about death because we sort of appreciate it. it's weird. we are weird. lovely but weird.

Ah, yes. I made a special trip to visit Beethoven's grave. I bought a dark red rose outside the gate and then felt embarrassed to find Schubert and Brahams nearby. Ludwig got the rose though .

Perdita

p.s. Besides the fact that Mexico got rid of its Austrian emporer (WHAT were they thinking?!), we do have an appreciation of death in common (e.g., The Day of the Dead).