A fascinating thread on AskReddit asks “What are your favourite culturally untranslatable phrases?”
Language warning, so I’ve put it below the fold.
imstuckonatrain: I really like this Greek/cypriot phrase which basically means you’re really overcomplicating something:
Εκαμεs τον μουτσιον επιστήμη
Translated: You made masturbation a science
cake_a_too: In French we say “You’re sodomizing flies”.
lilgreenrosetta: The Dutch phrase for giving too much attention to insignificant details is “ant fucking”. I guess the French have us beat on that one.
Kasyx: Personally, I’m a huge fan of the derogatory Afrikaans term for South African English-speakers:
soutpiel
Which translates to “Saltcock”, implying that they have one leg in England, one leg in South Africa, and their dick is dangling in the ocean.
ricoza: Piele vleg – braiding penises : to engage in male bonding
das_hansl: Funny, I’m dutch and I understood it without translation.
LexMortis: That’s because Afrikaans is Loldutch.
TastyAnimal: Jou mammie naai vir bakstene om jou sissie se hoerhuis te bou.
Dunno if the spelling is correct, but apparently it’s an insult.
Oh, and bedsuavekid, have an “opstoot”.
bedsuavekid: Oh, that one’s glorious! Opstoot vir jou ook! Vieslik!
EDIT: oh, and for the rest of you, a rough translation would be, your mother engages in prostitution in order to raise funds for the building materials necessary to construct a brothel from which your sister will operate.
TastyAnimal: That is a hell of an eloquent translation.
A more brash one would be ‘your mother shags for bricks to build your sisters whorehouse’.
EDIT: Fantastic. The most upvotes I ever get is for translating Afrikaans swearing. Eish.
H/T to BoingBoing.
