Hi everybody, I'm doing exercises with figures of speech in English and I have to traslate an Italian sentence "avvertire i morsi della fame" (feeling hunger pangs), which is a metaphor. I would to mimik the same effect in the translation from Italian into English, could I say "I'm starving like Marvin"? I've read about this London's joke about a guitarist Hank Marvin. What do you think about? Could you give me a better translation? Thanks.

Question

Hi everybody, I'm doing exercises with figures of speech in English and I have to traslate an Italian sentence "avvertire i morsi della fame" (feeling hunger pangs), which is a metaphor. I  would to mimik the same effect in the translation from Italian into English, could I say "I'm starving like Marvin"? I've read about this London's joke about a guitarist Hank Marvin. What do you think about? Could you give me a better translation? Thanks.

Answer

To say "I'm Hank Marvin" is a sort of cockney rhyming slang. I.e. slang based on words that sound similar (Hank Marvin = starvin' - note that the g on the end isn't pronounced to make it rhyme).

Similar examples:
Dog and bone = phone.
Apples and pears = stairs.

It was quite a popular phrase a while ago, but you don't hear it as much now.

Answer

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!"

I'm so hungry I'm absolutely starving"

Answer

not faur but fair

Answer

thanks everybody. I would traslate the sentence "after a long period of loneliness, like after a long fasting, you feel hunger of pangs". In Italian it is translated with a metaphor, so I would like to mimic the same effect. "after long period of loneliness.........you would eat a horse" seems faur enough?

Answer

Most common, we would say, “I’m starving to death!”