Does your country or culture have special sayings, curses or blessings?
By seamonkey
@seamonkey (1976)
Ireland
April 12, 2007 9:58am CST
If so, would you care to share them or translate them?
I'll start you off with a few of Irish curses:
"May the curse of Mary Malone and her nine blind illegitimate children chase you so far over the hills of Damnation that the Lord himself can't find you with a telescope."
"May the enemies of Ireland never meet a friend."
And here is a favorite Irish proverb: "It is a long road that has no turning."
And not to leave out a favorite Irish passtime, a song to go with the grog!
"They come over here
And they take all our land
They chop off our heads
And they boil them in oil
Our children are leaving
And we have no heads
We drink and we sing
And we drink and we die"
--Denis Leary
What about you?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@brokentia (10389)
• United States
13 Apr 07
Wow! That's pretty cool! You can still sing and drink with your heads chopped off?
Umm...that is a little scary. ha ha
I don't think that we really have any saying in the States.
Hmmm... Get over it and eat a biscuit?
Gosh! I can't think of anything as interesting as your's! LOL
That one with the Lord not being able to find a person with a telescope was pretty cool! LOL I would love to hear more! :)
1 person likes this
@seamonkey (1976)
• Ireland
13 Apr 07
I was hoping this would get a lot of responses because there are people from all over the world on Mylot.
Here's another Irish saying: "A country without a language, a country without a soul" and here it is in the Irish: "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam" (/teer gon chong-ga, teer gon on-um/).
Here are a few more good ones:
Beware of the anger of a patient man.
Coimhéad fearg fhear na foighde.
Many a time a man's mouth broke his nose.
Is minic a bhris béal duine a shrón.
There are two versions of/two sides to every story & (at least) twelve versions of every song.
Bíonn dhá insint ar scéal agus dhá leagan déag ar amhrán
As old as the mist and older by two.
Chomh sean leis an cheo agus níos sine faoi dhó.
And my favorite!
Never take advice without a woman's guidance.
Ná glac pioc comhairle gan comhairle ban.
@yanstill (1490)
• China
30 Apr 07
yes,we have,and i like yours---we drink and we die.
this is a famous poet in China,it's title is 'homesickness'
when i was a child,my homesickness was a small stamp,
linking mum at the other end and me this.
when grown up,i remained homesick,but it became a ticket,
by which i sailed to and from my bride at the other end.
then homesickness took the shape of a grave,
mum inside and me outside.
now i am still homesick,but it is a narrow strait,
separating me on this side and the mainland on the other.
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
13 Apr 07
These are so cute and good and you should get alot of responses since they are so many different countries and variety of people here on mylot and I am sure they have many. I can only think of three,don't know if they are United States saying or not but I grew up hearing it all the time.1. No use crying over spilled milk. 2. You only have to do three things in life, live,die and do taxes. 3. The older you get the dumber.(I have heard this one many times growing up..lol). Well that's all I have for now. Sorry they weren't as good and interesting as yours though.
@maribea (2366)
• Italy
12 Apr 07
oh..mary malone!!!! when I was in Dublin I was told her history and of course I had my picture with them like any good tourist coming to Dublin!!!! I have always thought you Irish had a peculiar sense of humour and there it is!!!ops I have never thought about particular Italian blessing..now I can only recall some Old latin sentences they used in ancient time when greeting...
Pax vobiscum...that means...peace to you...or Ave that means...hi, hello..or Pace e bene....peace and good things to you...we still use in everyday life these expressions...or there are so many proverbs..I don't know if it is correct proverbs in English...I think to sentences like...Fai del bene e scordati, fai del male e ricordalo per bene...that is..do a good thing and forget it, do a bad thing and remember it as much as you can...and so on...there are millions and millions...
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
14 Apr 07
You have to understand that Singapore, where I stay, is a relatively young country. We have just 40 years of history under our belt and it is really too short a time period to gain any "specials". We have urban legends and myths.. whatever, but they are more "inherited" from our ancestors who moved here from everywhere else.
