For Day 22, the prompt was to use a phrase from another language or culture as the jumping-off
point for a poem. This was funny as phrases in one language have no meaning in
another. In the prompt, check out the links one, two and three, and you’ll have
a good laugh.
I’ve put
the meanings of the two phrases I used in my poem at the end. Cheers.
This is the prompt for the April 20 poem:
The (optional) prompt for the day asks you to engage with
different languages and cultures through the lens of proverbs and idiomatic phrases.
Many different cultures have proverbs or phrases that have largely the same
meaning, but are expressed in different ways. For example, in English we say
“his bark is worse than his bite”, but the same idea in Spanish would be stated
as “the lion isn’t as fierce as his painting”. Today, I’d like to challenge you
to find an idiomatic phrase from a different language or culture and use it as
the jumping-off point for your poem. Here’s a few lists to help get you
started: one,
two, three.
Holy cow
There’s
no cow on the ice,
He said,
pointing to the angry sky.
It will
not rain today on high.
I did
not trust his line of advice
For the
cumulonimbus were rolling in,
The wind’s
rapture building.
I did
not want to offend the man,
Stranger
as I was in a strange land,
But things
seemed to be gathering torment.
A frog
in a well doesn’t know the great sea,
He said as
the trees shook around me.
Was I
the frog? I suppressed my need to vent.
When I
looked up I saw him bent double,
Chucking
with glee at my fear of trouble.
Copyright
Vickie Johnstone, April 22, 2020
Meanings of the two phrases I used:
There’s
no cow on the ice (Swedish)
Meaning:
there’s no need to worry
A frog
in the well does not know the great sea (Japanese)
Meaning:
there’s more going on than you know
Here are
some other great phrases I found interesting or funny, and almost used:
One afternoon
in your next incarnation (Thai)
Meaning:
it’s never going to happen!
The hen
sees the snake’s feet and the snake sees the hen’s boobs (Thai)
Meaning:
two people know each other’s secrets
Go pick
mushrooms! (Latvian)
Meaning:
go away and leave me alone!
He who
doesn’t have a dog hunts with a cat (Portuguese)
Meaning:
you make the most of what you’ve got
Pay the
duck (Portuguese)
Meaning:
take the blame
The pussy
cat will come to the tiny door (Croatian)
Meaning:
what goes around comes around
Balls of
a swan (Croatian)
Meaning:
impossible
To live
with wolves you have to howl like a wolf (Russian)
Meaning:
to survive in a dangerous situation you need to try to blend in
Love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Some of the phrases cracked me up!
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