I recently learned from someone that there is a Polish expression that translated literally means "not my circus, not my monkeys." Of course, the intended meaning is "not my problem." I love this imagery! I've actually now used the English version in conversation a few times, and each time the people hearing it found it very amusing. I'd love to hear creative idiomatic expressions that you enjoy from your own language, or ones that you've heard from another language that spoke to you.
I love the expression for someone who is a "jack of all trades, but a master of none" in Spanish.
Un océano de conocimiento de una pulgada de profundidad ("An ocean of knowledge... an inch deep").
Going back to Polish language there is something like "gardener's dog". It's that person who don't wants or needs something but won't let other person have it. I quite like that one. You all know these people:-P
Not in my native language but my favorite idiom is this Japanese idiom:
塵も積もれば山となる・ちりもつもればやまとなる
Even dust, when piled up, will become a mountain
Hi,
yea, they're funny, ex.:
"pójść z torbami" 'to go with a bags' = 'come a stumer, go broke'
"trafić się jak ślepej kurze ziarno" "to come up like a grain to blind hen' I'm not sure I translated it properly. Some says it's like English 'every dog has its day' but it's not the same. It's more like lucky break for someone who is en extremely lucky
A nice one in Irish is "Is é a locht a laghad". It means "its only fault is that there is so little of it", said of something good which finishes too soon.
"Deiseal!" is something you can say when someone sneezes. It means "sunwise" or "clockwise" (literally "rightwards"). In the old days, turning clockwise was supposed to bring good fortune, turning anticlockwise, on the other hand, was unlucky.
One of my favourites from Welsh is "cysgu ar dy drwyn", literally "to sleep on your nose", it means to nod off (fall asleep) while you're doing something.
