quarta-feira, 23 de julho de 2008

in the people's mouth

Aproveitando o lance do título da última postagem, tem uma coisa que eu acho engraçada: a tentativa das pessoas de traduzirem expressões tipicamente brasileiras, ou que só existem na língua portuguesa. Parece uma coisa boba mas tem gente que tenta explicar pra um gringo o real significado de "tirar o cavalinho da chuva". E, obviamente, não consegue. Mas frases são formadas nessa tentativa, e são impagáveis. Googleei por aí e reuni algumas:

  • Take the little horse out of the rain
  • To cry for the spilled milk
  • The king of the black coconut-candy
  • The conversation is not in the kitchen yet
  • To catch someone with the mouth in the adobe bottle
  • The walls have ears
  • To cry crocodile tears
  • To rain in the wet
  • To buy a cat instead of a hare
  • Slow down the bier because the saint is earthen
  • To be in the tongue-tip
  • To escape with the tail between the legs
  • It's too late and Inês is dead
  • Bite me monkeys!
  • To kill two rabbits with only one stick
  • To put the feet through the hands
  • To mix garlic with oak-galls
  • Don't do harm to a fly
  • Don't have where to drop dead
  • Don't have paste in the tongue
  • Not eight neither eighty
  • Never seen her (him) fatter
  • What you say no one can write down
  • The dogs bark and the company passes by
  • To a good understander half of a word is enough
  • To lose the foot-boards
  • It's worse the amendment than the sonnet
  • To put the cart before the oxen
  • To look for a needle in a haystack
  • To pull the burning coal to one's sardine
  • With no feet nor head
  • With no floor nor edge
  • Color of a donkey when escapes
  • To block the sun with a sieve
  • To have an elephant's memory
  • To give cloth for the sleeves
  • To take the word out of the mouth
  • To change six for half a dozen
UFA!
Quem souber de mais alguma coloque nos comentários.

2 comentários:

Unknown disse...

muitas dessas expressoes sao de fato de uso comum nos EUA, mas sao um pouco diferentes da traducao exibida:
At the tip of my tongue,
crocodile tears, to cry over spilled milk, as a needle in a haystack, you got it from my mouth.
Ja' outras tem umas transformacoes inexplicaveis:
custar os olhos da cara => cost an arm and a leg.
Jogar verde pra' colher maduro => beat around the bush.

Francisco disse...

Pois é, Paulo, muitas delas foram inventadas aqui por mera brincadeira...