Untranslatable

[Andreina]

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).

hey, we got rid of the whole habsburg family soon after you shot ferdinand. ;-) tell me before you come to vienna next time, i'll show you the secret treasures of vienna

 

[LadyJeanne]

Ako go nemas vo glava, ke go imas vo nogi.

Literally, it means: If you don't have it in your head, you'll have it in your feet.

A better translation is: If you don't use your head, you'll be using your feet.

My mother always says this when you do something stupid, like having to run around the house for an hour trying to find your keys or having to go the store 5 times to pick up the stuff you forgot to pick up for Thanksgiving dinner. Actually, she never finishes the statement. It's always, "Ako go nemas vo glava..." and then she shakes her head.

 

[McKenna]

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.”

Fun! There's quite a few in there I haven't even heard of! Got me thinking of some other things I thought were interesting about Dutch, though.

For instance, in Dutch time "walks" (not flies)... "De tijd loopt." Water, too, "walks" instead of "runs". "Het water loopt."

To insult someone for being weak or acting like a wuss, you call them a "watje". "Watje" is also the word for cottonball.

Calling someone an "eikel" could mean calling them a dickhead or an acorn. The meaning is derived from the context of the sentence.

"Wat de boer niet kent, dat eet hij niet." Literally it means "What the farmer doesn't know, he won't eat." You say it when someone is being a fussy eater, who won't try something new just because he isn't familiar with it.

If you sneeze three times in a row, that's supposed to bring about good weather. "Derde keer, goeie weer." (Third time, good weather. It rhymes in Dutch.)

Sometimes it's interesting to note that there are similarities in certain expressions. For instance in English we say "sick as a dog". They say the same in Dutch to mean the same, "Zo ziek als een hond." Also "Sleep like a log" vs "Slapen als een blok."

Once when I was still a novice Dutch speaker, I was speaking with my husband's grandmother on the phone. I meant to tell her that I expected my husband back in a couple of hours, what I ended up telling her was that I was "expecting."

Ik ben in verwachting... means "I am expecting" (pregnant).

Ik verwacht ... means "I expect."

Ooops.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Once when I was still a novice Dutch speaker, I was speaking with my husband's grandmother on the phone. I meant to tell her that I expected my husband back in a couple of hours, what I ended up telling her was that I was "expecting."

Ik ben in verwachting... means "I am expecting" (pregnant).

Ik verwacht ... means "I expect."

Ooops.

That's priceless!

I hope it didn't lead to a heart attack or stroke.

 

[BlackShanglan]

A term of close affection between my mother and I is "a cushla," being short for "a cushla mo chroidhe" (pardon spelling; too lazy atm to look up) - Irish for "a pulse of my heart." My father's side contributes - not surprisingly - "mangela" (sp?) Italian for eat, I am told, or so we use it. Also (phonetically here again; none of my Italian ancestors were literate) "menza-menz" - so-so.

Otherwise I am - true to form - stuck in the fictional world. "Hraka" is a good curseword because hardly anyone knows what it means; you'd have to have read Watership Down and remembered the rabbit word for "shit." It's got a satisfying sound, as well. And for some reason "viddy" never quite seems to have left my brain following far too many readings of A Clockwork Orange.

Shanglan

 

[McKenna]

That's priceless!

I hope it didn't lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Pretty close! There were quite a few phones calls that night between family members trying to figure out if I really was pregnant or not.

That story has now become a familiy favorite... oy.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

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.

When your shirt's a bit too tight you can get those little openings between the buttons when you move. We always called them "whispers".

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Oh, I've got another one! From a Polish friend this time.

Phonetically it's something like "mozhnah zeeyezh" (long O) and it means, "It may be eaten" or "It's edible," but he applies it to cars, clothes, books, anything he wants to show mild approval of, and especially women.

More accurately, it's a way to maintain a cool Slavik aloofness towards something you find very nice indeed. Angeline Jolie in a leather catsuit? Mozhnah zeeyezh. Kind of like that.

 

[shereads]

A Cuban friend offers this one: "He thinks his elbow can fit in his ear."

He tried to explain the significance, but I zoned out.

 

[shereads]

Pepsi once had an advertising theme, "Come alive." The Chinese translation that appeared on billboards meant "Return from the dead."

A U.S. airline's leather seats were "seats made from skin."