Two young track-and-field athletes, Jim and Frank, are having a talk before the run of Jim’s: “You know, I wish you all the best today, Jim! Break a leg!” “Thank you, Frank! I’ll do my best.”
This conversation seems rather confusing, doesn’t it? But it’s not what some of you might think it is. Frank’s “Break a leg!” is far from being a wicked remark made out of envy of Jim’s possible success, as well as his skills. What’s more, Frank IS frank enough in wishing all the best to his friend. It sounds queer, yet Break a leg! is not said to mock the athlete, but to REALLY support him and wish him good luck.
It’s interesting to know that the phrase has a theatrical origin. I don’t mean to say it is originally used as an intent to get people’s attention. I mean it is related to theater performances. Why, the theatre is notoriously superstitious. Therefore it is believed that wishing “good luck” to your colleagues is deemed bad luck, a taboo to say. So “break a leg” used to be actually utteredd as an euphemism and is still employed to wish good luck to somebody, especially before some important event or performance, in precise.
I simply adore English for being such an ironic language at times, especially in the variety of puzzling idioms and catchphrases it has. It is always much fun to translate such phrases into Russian.
Imagine a situation in which an interpreter translates some idioms wrong. It can be either funny or causing some trouble. To avoid mistakes we should be aware of the existence of such false friends of interpreters and translators, and never be too selfassure to ignore checking words up in a dictionary or two.
Another funny example I like is a phrase “to have nothing upstairs”. Not quite sure if it is commonly used by English speakers, yet I saw it yesterday in my Idioms Dictionary and fell in love at first sight. Let’s see if you understand the meaning of it within the following context I’ve just made up:
“Did you hear Mary yesterday at the conference? She’s got a brain of a pigeon! She seems to have nothing upstairs!”
So, as you can see, English idioms are very funny and challenging indeed for a non-English-speaker to understand. I will be posting sometimes about my favorite ones to share my enthusiasm about them with you.
And you? Are there any funny idiomatic phrases YOU can recall of? Have you ever come across a problem of translating idioms? Do you think they may cause misunderstanding in comunication?
Please, share! .)
