don't eat what others have chewed (and other finland swedish wisdom)

[cimorene]

here's about 15 aphorisms and expressions i noted down from finlands svenska folkdiktning today.

sayings wax and i were able to understand:



it's not small birds' food that eagles and ravens fly off with.
big deal where you have to sit, as long as you get to eat and drink.
what you eat out of the pot you won't get on your plate.
when you eat your own porridge you don't have anyone to thank.
don't eat what others have chewed.
wisdom doesn't insist on food.
if stones would do for food as water does for drink, there would be lots of lazy dogs in the world.
it's rare that you see cows in galoshes.
a quick man can get another cow, but a dead man won't ever get another day.
i feel like a dog in a well with the lid on.
he's sniffing around like a strange dog.
they're related like dogs and wolves.

saying that left me and wax confused: "they don't go so fast as to cut the tail off the dog." (inte går de så hastigt som att hugga svansen av hunden.) we've speculated a bit, the leading theory being that if you leave in a hurry and slam the door behind you and the dog is right at your heels you might shut its tail in the door. other theories gladly accepted.



eta:
stekta sparvar flyga ej i den lates mun.
det är ej små fåglars mat, som örnar och korpar flyga av med.
stor sak var man får sitta, bara man får äta och dricka.
det, som ätes ur gryten, fås ej på fattet.
när man äter egen gröt, har man ingen att tacka för.
man skall ej äta vad andra tuggat.
lärdomen pockar ej på mat.
om stenarna döge till mat som vattnet till dryck, funnes det många lat-hundar i världen.
sällan ser man kor i galoscher.
kvick man fär ko igen, men död man får aldrig dagar.
ja mår som hunden i brunnen och locket på.
han snokar som fremands hondin.
släkt som hunden och värgen.

Comments

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

it's rare that you see cows in galoshes

so true.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

that one was also my favourite. :D and i have this great image of some surprised people stopping their car and getting out to stare at a cow pasture...

[northern]

Kanske "Inte går *det* så hastigt..."? That's not as fast as chopping the tail off a dog would be.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

oh! that's probably right--they've written "de", but they were spelling everything phonetically. that makes much more sense.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

...I feel so stupid. I don't understand what most of those mean. Especially the one about cows in galoshes, although it's really amusing.

But then, inability to explain proverbs was part of my Asperger's diagnosis. :/

[cimness.livejournal.com]

that one's kind of obscure, and you have to remember that aphorisms in the wild always have a context. "sällan ser man kor i galoscher" is a comment that you make when you see something really surprising, according to wax. i was baffled too when i wrote it down--i was thinking it meant that you can't be afraid to get wet and dirty if you're going to be comfortable out of doors.

[anglepoiselamp.livejournal.com]

"i was thinking it meant that you can't be afraid to get wet and dirty if you're going to be comfortable out of doors."

That's kind of how I would have interpreted it as well. Maybe because my mom has a habit of saying, "Well, you're not made of sugar", when people complain that it's raining and they don't want to go outside. The cow saying reminds me of that, I guess. :)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

hahaha! well, that's definitely the meaning of the one about sugar melting in the rain, but i don't think they're superficially very similar. i'm surprised by that association.