Using Proverbs – A Hobby For Linguists
Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC) once said: ‘By nature, men are nearly alike — by practice, they get to be wide apart.’
It was the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon who wrote ‘Genius, wit and spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs’. Every culture has a wealth of these and to be able to introduce an appropriate proverb at a suitable occasion can be most useful. One of the characteristics of proverbs can be the down-to-earth quality of their effect and impact.
In the context of not presuming to give advice to those who are more experienced and knowledgeable, the English proverb asserts ‘to teach one’s grandmother to suck eggs’, in the Thai language the equivalent proverb states ‘to teach a crocodile to swim’. The German proverb ‘to make an elephant out of a mosquito’ would in English be paraphrased into ‘to make a mountain out of a molehill’.
It is however dangerous to translate proverbs literally rather than idiomatically. An advertisement was published by a European manufacturer in a South American country based on a well understood European proverb which showed a goose laying the proverbial ‘golden egg’. However the local people could not understand the message at all, since in their country this practice is ascribed to hens. In Italy one would touch iron for luck, whilst in England one would touch wood.
During a formal luncheon in Shanghai in China, the French-Canadian speaking mayor of Montreal made a point during his speech by saying ‘Battre le fer quand il est chaud’ by which he meant ‘It is necessary to strike while the iron is hot’. Unfortunately the French-Canadian interpreter was not quite up to his task and translated this statement as ‘You must beat your brother when he’s drunk’ or ‘Battre son frere quand il est chaud’. The word ‘chaud’ being French-Canadian slang for ‘drunk’.
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