Proverbs, or refranes in Spanish, can be quite intimidating in any language and sometimes a great source of amusement. Trying to explain English proverbs to my Spanish friends can be very frustrating and the point is often missed. Some vocabulary loses a lot in the translation. So it was very interesting to come across a Spanish proverb the other day whilst talking to my friend Juan in Spain that bore a close relationship to its English equivalent. Not a literal or direct translation, but certainly from the same source, the hunt (la caza). What Juan said to me was “Zp sigue mareando la perdiz y anuncia una nueva ley de economía sostenible”; followed by the further example of “No marees la perdiz por favor. Ve al grano” The first phrase literally translated means “ZP continues to confuse the partridge and announces a new law for sustainable economics”; the second translates as “stop confusing the partridge and get to the point”. Our nearest equivalent is “to beat about the bush” and both are, of course, hunting expressions. The English refers to beaters (ojeadores in Spanish) who put up the game and the Spanish proverb refers to the bird directly, already beaten out of the bush.
The Spanish seem rather fond of using partidges in their proverbs because they also use “levantar le perdiz” -”to put up the partridge” or as the English would have it “to let the cat out of the bag”. The Spanish equivalent of “they lived happily ever after” is “y fueron felices y comieron perdices” – “and they were happy and ate partidges”. So, no pandering to vegitarianism there.
Isn’t it interesting how sostenible (sustainable) and sostenibilidad (sustainability) have become so overused and so hated in both the UK and Spain. How often have we seen politicians of all persuasions and usually limited ideas put on their serious “I’m talking directly to the public” face and use these over-rated and probably now meaningless words about every area of policy.
I digress!
