Give me the luck and throw me at sea: more Maltese proverbs
Published:
March 24, 2010 at 9:58am
Where you don't know is better not to try it - ghidilhom, Miss Jason.
These Maltese proverbs and their ‘translations’ are from Wikipedia.org. I’m guessing they got the Maltastar people to work on them.
Agħtini xortija u itfagħni l-baħar.(Give me the luck and throw me at sea.)
B’demm il-fqir ġid qatt ma jsir. (With poor’s blood good things never happen.)
Fejn ma tafx tindaħalx. (Where you don’t know is better to don’t try it.)
The last one should be printed out in 40pt and pasted onto the grotto wall by Miss Jason Micallef.
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Hallih il-Miss Micallef. Din wahda ghal Mrs Vella tal-FAA: qisha xidja f’sorm patri.
Imma wicca ghad-dawl, u dawk l-ohrajn kolla jahrawn fejn ixommuh … u Piano pastizzi f-halq il-hmir.
It’s not exactly a proverb, more like a religious chant, but try and translate this one into Maltese:
My old man said be a city fan;
I said bollocks you’re a cunt;
I’d rather shag a bucket with a big hole in it,
then be a City fan for just one minute…
http://www.red11.org/mufc/sound/mp3/MyOldMan.mp3
[Daphne – You lot are going to get me into trouble with the police again. And now there’s going to be a story on Maltastar about how I’m using this sajt to promote swearing among the impressionable – like Twanny.]
Isard ecc.ecc. Not “xidja f’sorm patri” but “fistla f’sorm patri”!!
Try telling that to Muscat Azzopardi who had published a school book with “xidja f’sorm il-patri” and most other vulgarities above some thirty years ago.
The expression in question being a hard-to-get-at itch, seeing that a priest in those days generally wore several layers of long garments.
I’ve heard the xidja thing but never the fistla. And Jack, it’s biskuttini, not pastizzi. Pastizzi is ‘poor food’ and contrasts with the whole meaning of the proverb.
Yes, you’re right about the biskuttini.
Who on earth translated those proverbs word for word? Mela, ghajnejk f’ sormi should be ‘your eyes in my butt’.
[Daphne – Or better still, ‘your butt in my butt’, given that ‘ghajn’ can also mean ‘sorm’.]
‘Il-bidwi sormu jikwi’
Qawl iehor, did-darba mehud mill- ‘Il-Qawl Iqul’ ta’ De’ Conti Manduca
Translation: The farmer’s arse is always sunburnt.
Dawn kien jghidom nannuwi (b’kunjom wiehed):
Biex taqta l-h**i trid taqta’ z-z**b!
L-ghamar ohla mil-gh**x.
Bewla bla bassa qisa torri mighajr ghassa.
Bikja ta’ mara bewla ta’ kelb.