Surreal in translation: Matt Lindley and Marcus Oakley's foreign proverbs – in pictures
The cat is out of the bag: proverbs sound ridiculous when they’re translated. London-based writer Matt Lindley has become fascinated with how foreign idioms translate into surreal phrases. “A country’s idioms can give us an insight into a culture,” he says. “There’s something slightly ‘other’ about foreign sayings, that reveals quite a different way of thinking.” After Lindley collected the sayings, Edinburgh-based artist Marcus Oakley turned them into illustrations for travel website Hotel Club. “I’m sure English idioms sound really strange to other people,” Lindley says. “Often ones that resonate with different cultures are the ones that are quite far away from the ones they have.”
Le démon de midi‘In France they also say “I have other cats to whip” instead of “bigger fish to fry”. They have lots of sayings about cats.’
Dar calabazas a alguien‘In ancient Greece pumpkins were an anti-aphrodisiac.’
Exatj zajcem‘Because people without a ticket shake, which hares apparently do.’
Katzen-sprung‘Many other German idioms seem to be about sausages and beer.’- Advertisement
Nie mój cyrk, nie moje malpy‘I lived in Poland for about four years, so this one’s my favourite. It’s a lot more fun than the English translation.’
Kao ga hiro i‘Apparently men with wide faces in Japan are considered more attractive and more likely to be successful.’
In bocca al lupo‘This is similar to “break a leg”. When someone says this to you, the correct reply is “Crepi”, which means “May the wolf die”.’
Päästää sammakko suusta‘Finnish sayings in general are really interesting. This one’s almost a false friend to “having a frog in your throat”.’
Alimentar um burro a pão-de-ló‘A lot of these are used across different cultures – apparently in Spanish they have something quite similar to this.’
Photograph: Matt Lindley & Marcus Oakley
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