I want to dedicate this post to my professor of phraseology at my University. You would wonder why? Well, the post I'm going to write today will be about Ukrainian sayings and according to my professor you can't translate them word by word but rather find in the target language a proverb that would reflect its meaning the best. Sounds not very complicated, right? It's really not hard but unfortunately, the meaning gets lost and it sounds not so "tasty" I would say in the result. So very often despite the rule that my professor taught me I do translate word by word Ukrainian sayings. You can see a smile on my boyfriend's face every time when in the course of some conversation I say: As we say in Ukraine... Once he even asked me: Do Ukrainians have a saying for every single situation in life? And I said: Of course! We are a very old and wise nation! We always have what to say! So I will go through a couple of most used Ukrainian sayings and I will try to do my best to translate them and to explain to you what we mean when we use them.
Let's get started! The first one and one of the most favorite proverbs of mine is "Together it's easier to beat up the father". Well, don't jump into conclusions and consider Ukrainians to be violent as for family members! We respect our fathers a lot, that's why I don't quite understand where this proverb comes from, but what it literally means is far away from beating anyone, including father. So when somebody says something like this to you he or she means that no matter how complicated the task is if people get together and solve it together anything is doable. Ukrainians like to help each other and total strangers too.
Next one is "The old woman off the cart, the easier it gets for the horse". In English, this proverb sounds like this: A good riddance to bad rubbish. But tell me true: whose variant do you like better? Isn't it more vivid and rich the way we say it in Ukrainian? Don't you start imagining this elderly woman that was mounting the cart and telling everyone what to do and how to do things including the horse finally gets off the cart and a horse with a sigh of relief starts to move much faster? No? Well, at least now you know what's going on in my head when I listen to people talking ))
"Don't say "Hop" until you have jumped over!" (never cackle till your egg is laid), that's one of the sayings that is very popular among elderly people in Ukraine. They don't like all the fuss of the modern times and impatience of their children and grandchildren makes them dizzy. So in order to slow down all this craziness around them and make everyone listen to them, they often repeat this saying.
There is a great number of sayings connected to one of the predominant features of Ukrainians - obsession with work. Of course, there are lazy people among us just as anywhere else. However, there is a lot of work-related proverbs that makes me believe that my ancestors were not afraid of any work and that this trait is part of our genetic code. One of my favorite ones from this area is "The water does not flow under a lying stone", meaning that if you do nothing don't expect any changes or improvements in your life. You might have heard the English equivalent "Heaven helps those who help themselves". Another my favorite one is "A drop can wear the stone thin". That's somewhat my life motto: I've experienced many times that persistence can bring me to the desired goals. The only problem is that after achieving one goal get ready to find the next one )) And make sure that between them you don't spend too much time on a sofa.
We have some other funny sayings that don't convey any century-old wisdom but are mainly used for the sake of a good laugh. One of them is connected to prejudice very popular in Ukraine. It is a really bad idea to whistle in any Ukrainian home. It is believed that whistling inside any building will deprive that place of good luck and money flow. So if somebody does dare to start whistling in the house they might hear a piece of advice: Stop whistling or your wife will have a bold husband (I have also heard a version "or your wife will have a stupid husband"). Usually, it takes a while for the whistler to figure out all the hidden meaning of the words, but eventually, it works )) "Because of the stupid head, the feet have no rest" you would hear from people if you do too much of unnecessary walking around while doing something without any particular goal. "The unskilled dancer will stumble over own feet" is about people that will find a million ways to shift responsibility for their failure on some circumstances that have nothing to do with the situation. "An apple doesn't fall too far from the apple tree" can be used both in a flattering way and as a reproach when you talk about somebody's children when you want either to say that they inherited some good features of their parents or on the contrary.
Either way, you can tell that Ukrainians have a great sense of humor and are ready to share their wisdom in a gentle and funny way.
So try to stay positive and remember that good sense of humor can prolong your life, because as Ukrainians say... the darker the night, the brighter the stars ))))
Enjoy every moment and behave!
Truly yours ))
P.S. As a bonus I will add a photo of today's amazing clouds.
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Let's get started! The first one and one of the most favorite proverbs of mine is "Together it's easier to beat up the father". Well, don't jump into conclusions and consider Ukrainians to be violent as for family members! We respect our fathers a lot, that's why I don't quite understand where this proverb comes from, but what it literally means is far away from beating anyone, including father. So when somebody says something like this to you he or she means that no matter how complicated the task is if people get together and solve it together anything is doable. Ukrainians like to help each other and total strangers too.
Next one is "The old woman off the cart, the easier it gets for the horse". In English, this proverb sounds like this: A good riddance to bad rubbish. But tell me true: whose variant do you like better? Isn't it more vivid and rich the way we say it in Ukrainian? Don't you start imagining this elderly woman that was mounting the cart and telling everyone what to do and how to do things including the horse finally gets off the cart and a horse with a sigh of relief starts to move much faster? No? Well, at least now you know what's going on in my head when I listen to people talking ))
"Don't say "Hop" until you have jumped over!" (never cackle till your egg is laid), that's one of the sayings that is very popular among elderly people in Ukraine. They don't like all the fuss of the modern times and impatience of their children and grandchildren makes them dizzy. So in order to slow down all this craziness around them and make everyone listen to them, they often repeat this saying.
There is a great number of sayings connected to one of the predominant features of Ukrainians - obsession with work. Of course, there are lazy people among us just as anywhere else. However, there is a lot of work-related proverbs that makes me believe that my ancestors were not afraid of any work and that this trait is part of our genetic code. One of my favorite ones from this area is "The water does not flow under a lying stone", meaning that if you do nothing don't expect any changes or improvements in your life. You might have heard the English equivalent "Heaven helps those who help themselves". Another my favorite one is "A drop can wear the stone thin". That's somewhat my life motto: I've experienced many times that persistence can bring me to the desired goals. The only problem is that after achieving one goal get ready to find the next one )) And make sure that between them you don't spend too much time on a sofa.
We have some other funny sayings that don't convey any century-old wisdom but are mainly used for the sake of a good laugh. One of them is connected to prejudice very popular in Ukraine. It is a really bad idea to whistle in any Ukrainian home. It is believed that whistling inside any building will deprive that place of good luck and money flow. So if somebody does dare to start whistling in the house they might hear a piece of advice: Stop whistling or your wife will have a bold husband (I have also heard a version "or your wife will have a stupid husband"). Usually, it takes a while for the whistler to figure out all the hidden meaning of the words, but eventually, it works )) "Because of the stupid head, the feet have no rest" you would hear from people if you do too much of unnecessary walking around while doing something without any particular goal. "The unskilled dancer will stumble over own feet" is about people that will find a million ways to shift responsibility for their failure on some circumstances that have nothing to do with the situation. "An apple doesn't fall too far from the apple tree" can be used both in a flattering way and as a reproach when you talk about somebody's children when you want either to say that they inherited some good features of their parents or on the contrary.
Either way, you can tell that Ukrainians have a great sense of humor and are ready to share their wisdom in a gentle and funny way.
So try to stay positive and remember that good sense of humor can prolong your life, because as Ukrainians say... the darker the night, the brighter the stars ))))
Enjoy every moment and behave!
Truly yours ))
P.S. As a bonus I will add a photo of today's amazing clouds.
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