Im Standing in a Lion s Den Your Watching Me Bleed Again

What does it mean to "have tomatoes on your optics?" Find out below…

It'due south a like shooting fish in a barrel. You lot tin can't put lipstick on a pig. Why add fuel to the fire? Idioms are those phrases that hateful more than the sum of their words. As our TED Translator volunteers interpret TED Talks into 116 languages (and counting), they're often challenged to translate English idioms into their linguistic communication. Which made us wonder: what are their favorite idioms in their ain tongue?

Below, nosotros asked translators to share their favorite idioms and how they would translate literally. The results are laugh-out-loud funny.

From German translator Johanna Pichler :

The idiom: Tomaten auf den Augen haben.
Literal translation: "You lot have tomatoes on your eyes."
What it means: "You are not seeing what anybody else can run into. It refers to real objects, though — not abstract meanings."

The idiom: Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.
Literal translation: "I only sympathize the train station."
What it means: "I don't empathize a thing almost what that person is saying.'"

The idiom: Die Katze im Sack kaufen.
Literal translation: "To buy a cat in a sack."
What it means: That a heir-apparent purchased something without inspecting it kickoff.
Other languages this idiom exists in: We hear from translators that this is an idiom in Swedish, Polish, Latvian and Norwegian. In English language, the phrase is "buying a pig in poke," simply English language speakers practise also  "permit the cat out of the handbag," which means to reveal something that's supposed to be secret.

From Swedish translator Matti Jääro :

The idiom: Det är ingen ko på isen
Literal translation: "There'due south no cow on the ice."
What it means: "There'south no demand to worry. We also use 'Det är ingen fara på taket,' or 'There'southward no danger on the roof,' to hateful the aforementioned thing."

The idiom: Att glida in på en räkmacka
Literal translation: "To slide in on a shrimp sandwich."
What it means: "Information technology refers to somebody who didn't have to work to get where they are."

The idiom: Det föll mellan stolarna
Literal translation: "It brutal between chairs."
What it means: "It's an excuse you use when two people were supposed to exercise it, but nobody did. It has evolved into the slightly ironic phrase, 'It vicious between the chair,' which you employ when you want to say,'Yeah, I know I was supposed to do information technology but I forgot.'"

From Thai translator Kelwalin Dhanasarnsombut :

The idiom: เอาหูไปนา เอาตาไปไร่
Literal translation: "Take ears to the field, take eyes to the subcontract."
What it means: "Information technology means 'don't pay any attention.' Almost similar 'don't bring your eyes and ears with you.' If that were possible."

The idiom: ไก่เห็นตีนงู งูเห็นนมไก่
Literal translation: "The hen sees the snake's anxiety and the snake sees the hen's boobs."
What it ways: "Information technology means two people know each other's secrets."

The idiom: ชาติหน้าตอนบ่าย ๆ
Literal translation: "One afternoon in your next reincarnation."
What it means: "It'southward never gonna happen."
Other languages this idiom exists in: A phrase that ways a like affair in English: "When pigs wing." In French, the same thought is conveyed past the phrase, "when hens accept teeth (quand les poules auront des dents)." In Russian, information technology's the intriguing phrase, "When a lobster whistles on superlative of a mountain (Когда рак на горе свистнет)." And in Dutch, information technology's "When the cows are dancing on the ice (Als de koeien op het ijs dansen)."

From Latvian translator Ilze Garda and Kristaps Kadiķis :

The idiom: Pūst pīlītes.
Literal translation: "To blow footling ducks."
What it means: "It means to talk nonsense or to lie."
Other language connections: In Croation, when someone is manifestly lying to someone, you say that they are "throwing cream into their eyes (bacati kajmak u oči)."

The idiom: Ej bekot.
Literal translation: "'Go pick mushrooms,' or, more than specifically, 'Go pick boletes!'"
What it ways: "Go away and/or exit me solitary."

From French translator Patrick Brault :

The idiom: Avaler des couleuvres.
Literal translation: "To swallow grass snakes."
What it means: "It ways being so insulted that y'all're not able to reply."

The idiom: Sauter du coq à l'âne.
Literal translation: "To bound from the erect to the donkey."
What it means: "It means to keep changing topics without logic in a chat."

The idiom: Se regarder en chiens de faïence.
Literal translation: "To look at each other like earthenware dogs."
What it means: "Basically, to await at each other coldly, with distrust."

The idiom: Les carottes sont cuites!
Literal translation: "The carrots are cooked!"
What it means: "The situation can't be inverse."
Other language connections: It's bit like the phrase, "It'due south no use crying over spilt milk," in English.

From Russian translator Aliaksandr Autayeu :

The idiom: Галопом по Европам
Literal translation: "Galloping across Europe."
What it means: "To practise something hastily, haphazardly."

The idiom: На воре и шапка горит
Literal translation: "The thief has a called-for lid."
What information technology means: "He has an uneasy conscience that betrays itself."

The idiom: Хоть кол на голове теши
Literal translation: "You can sharpen with an ax on top of this caput."
What it means: "He's a very stubborn person."

The idiom: брать/взять себя в руки
Literal translation: "To take oneself in i'southward easily."
What information technology means: "It means 'to pull yourself together.'"
Other languages this idiom exists in: Translators tell us that at that place is a German version of this idiom too: "Sich zusammenreißen," which translates literally as "to tear oneself together." And in Polish, the aforementioned thought is expressed past the phrase, "we take ourselves into our fist (wziąć się w garść)."

From Portuguese translators Gustavo Rocha and Leonardo Silva :

The idiom: Quem não se comunica se trumbica
Literal translation: "He who doesn't communicate, gets his fingers burnt."
What it means: "He who doesn't communicate gets into trouble."'

The idiom: Quem não tem cão caça com gato
Literal translation: "He who doesn't accept a dog hunts with a cat."
What it means: "You make the most of what you lot've got." Basically, you practice what you need to practice, with what the resources you have.

The idiom: Empurrar com a barriga
Literal translation: "To push something with your belly."
What it means: "To keep postponing an important chore."

The idiom: Pagar o pato
Literal translation: "Pay the duck."
What it means: "To take the blame for something you did non do."

From Polish translator Kinga Skorupska :

The idiom: Słoń nastąpił ci na ucho?
Literal translation: "Did an elephant stomp on your ear?"
What it means: "Yous have no ear for music."
Other languages this idiom exists in : Our translators tell us that in Croatian, there's also a connexion made between elephants and musical power in the phrase, "You sing like an elephant farted in your ear (Pjevaš kao da ti je slon prdnuo u uho.)." Only in the Latvian version, information technology's a comport who stomps on your ear.

The idiom: Bułka z masłem.
Literal translation: "Information technology's a gyre with butter."
What it means: "It'southward really easy."

The idiom: Z choinki się urwałaś?
Literal translation: "Did you autumn from a Christmas tree?"
What it means: "You lot are not well informed, and it shows."

From Japanese translators Yasushi Aoki and Emi Kamiya :

The idiom: 猫をかぶる
Literal translation: "To article of clothing a cat on ane'southward head."
What information technology means: "You're hiding your claws and pretending to be a dainty, harmless person."

The idiom: 猫の手も借りたい
Literal translation: "Willing to infringe a cat's paws."*
What it means: "You lot're so busy that you're willing to take help from anyone."

The idiom: 猫の額
Literal translation: "True cat's forehead."
What information technology means: "A tiny space. Often, you use it when you're speaking humbly about land that you ain."

The idiom: 猫舌
Literal translation: "Cat tongue."
What information technology ways: "Needing to wait until hot food cools to eat it."

*Yes, Japanese has quite a few cat idioms.

From Kazakh translator Askhat Yerkimbay:

The idiom: Сенің арқаңда күн көріп жүрмін
Literal translation: "I come across the sun on your back."
What it means: "Thank y'all for existence you. I am alive because of your assistance."

From Croatian translator Ivan Stamenkovic :

The idiom: Doće maca na vratanca
Literal translation: "The pussy cat will come to the tiny door."
What it means: "Substantially, 'What goes around comes effectually.'"

The idiom: Da vidimo čija majka crnu vunu prede
Literal translation: "We encounter whose female parent is spinning black wool."
What it means: "Information technology's like being the blackness sheep in the family."

The idiom: Muda Labudova
Literal translation: "Balls of a swan."
What it means: "It means something that's impossible."

The idiom: Mi o vuku
Literal translation: "To talk about the wolf."
What it means: "Information technology'due south similar to 'speak of the devil.'"
Other language connections: In Polish, "O wilku mowa" is the equivalent.

From Tamil translator Tharique Azeez :

The idiom: தலை முழுகுதல் (Thalai Muzhuguthal)
Literal translation: "To have a dip or pour water over someone'due south head."
What it means: "To cut off a relationship."

The idiom: தண்ணீர் காட்டுதல் (Thanneer Kaattuthal)
Literal translation: "Showing h2o to someone."
What information technology means: "It ways to exist someone's nemesis."

From Dutch translator Valerie Churl :

The idiom: Iets met de Franse slag doen
Literal translation: "Doing something with the French whiplash."
What it means: "This apparently comes from riding terminology. Information technology means doing something hastily."

The idiom: Iets voor een appel en een ei kopen
Literal translation: "Ownership something for an apple tree and an egg."
What information technology means: "It ways y'all bought it very cheaply."
Other language connections: Spanish translator Camille Martínez points out out that when something is expensive in English, you pay ii body parts for information technology ("it cost me an arm and a leg"), whereas in Castilian yous but pay one — either a kidney ("me costó un riñón") or an eye ("me costó united nations ojo de la cara").

From Korean translator Jeong Kinser :

The idiom: 똥 묻은 개가 겨 묻은 개 나무란다
Literal translation: "A dog with feces scolds a domestic dog with husks of grain."
What information technology means: "Information technology's a chip like, 'People who live in drinking glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'"

The idiom: 오십보 백보
Literal translation: "fifty steps are similar to 100 steps."
What it means: "I think of it as, 'Six of ane, half a dozen of the other.'"

What are your favorite idioms? Share in the comments section.

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Source: https://blog.ted.com/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/comment-page-2/