Oddly enough, last night I happened to wander into the section of Wikipedia which offers proverbs in other languages and their translation. Some sections are pretty small. Checking on the big Spanish section, you often see one Spanish phrase provide several variants (sometimes from different countries) and there can be subtle differences between several sample translations, very much like the English ambiguity in "I feel bad". It's clear that these differing shades of meaning can all apply to how the phrase gets used. The really interesting part were the connections that seem unfamiliar, that are not linked like that in English.
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Date: 19 Feb 2011 02:50 am (UTC)