In English we have the saying “Like a bull in a china shop”. In Spanish there are at least three counterparts:
“Un cerdo en una cacharreria” = “A pig in a pottery store”
“Un elefante en una cristaleria” = “An elephant in a glassware shop”. The third is a “chivo” or “kid goat” in a glassware shop.
Here are two idioms involving numbers
“La docena del fraile” literally means “The friar’s dozen. In English it’s the “baker’s dozen”.
In a previous posting we translated the saying “As blind as a bat” to “Mas ciego que un topo” which means “Blinder than a mole”. Another way to say this is “No ver tres en un burro” which literally translates to “Not to see three on a donkey”.
In English we describe someone who is skinny as being “As thin as a rail” or “All skin and bones”. Here are some Spanish idioms to this effect:
“Estar hecho un fideo” literally translates to “To be made a noodle”.
“Estar hecho un esparrago” - this time it’s asparagus
“Estar hecho un palillo” - a toothpick, a colloquial term we use in English
“Delgado como una espada” literally means “Thin like a sword”.
“Quemar las naves” means “To burn the boats”, which phrase is apparently used in Great Britain. It harkens back to The Iliad and signifies an action taken to make a course of conduct irreversible. In the U.S. we’d call it “Burning our bridges behind us” or simply “To burn our bridges”.
“Ser una hormiga” literally means “To be an ant”. The colloquial meaning is “To be industrious or thrifty”. In English we have the saying “To be as busy as a bee”.
“Ojos de lince” literally translates as “Eyes of lynx”. In English the equivalent is “eagle-eye” or “hawk-eye”. When we’re in a perilous situation we are said to be in “the jaws of death”. In Spanish we’d be in the mouth of the wolf “la boca del lobo”.
Since it’s now summer, let’s look at a couple of water related sayings
“Cuando el rio suena, agua lleva” literally means “When the river makes noise (sounds), it carries water”. The colloquial equivalent in English is markedly different: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”.
“Ha llovido mucho desde entonces” translates literally to “It has rained a lot since then”. Here the counterpart in English also uses water: “A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then”.
“Subirse por las paredes” literally means “To climb the walls”. However, the idiomatic counterpart in English is “To hit the ceiling”, denoting anger rather than frustration.
“El dinero no nace en macetas” literally translates to “Money is not born in flower pots”. Our English equivalent is “Money does not grow on trees”. Another saying in Spanish is “Alli no se atan los perros con longanizas” which literally means “Over there they don’t tie up dogs with sausages”.
“Ciudad hongo” literally means “Mushroom city”. The colloquial translation is “Boom town”. Here’s a random one. In English, we play “hookey” when we skip a class. In Spanish, we smoke it: “Fumarse una clase”.
