My grandpa always used to say "tacto eye yachtum sveche". I think he said it meant something along the lines of "that's just the way it goes in the world". I know it isn't spelled correctly but can anyone help me find the correct spelling and translation?
my grandpa sometimes says: jak się polka uda panu bogu, to kłoncie się narody or something like that. it's supposed to mean when god successfully creates a polish woman the nation should kneel down to her.. can anyone tell me what the full/correct version is of this in polish?
Could someone please give me the gist of this quote in English please? The online translators are not making very much sense of it. Wszystko jedno, czy się ma przed sobą sto lat, rok czy tydzień, zawsze się ma przed sobą wszystko
Jak cię widzą, tak cię piszą. Literally "how they see you, so they write you". Should be "o tobie piszą" instead of "cię piszą", then it would literally mean "so they write about you", but then it would lose the rhyme, and rhyme is important in such sayings. Or, more likely, maybe in the past the meaning of the word "pisać" was different than today, and maybe it meant also "think about someone in a specific way" in addition to "write". I have no idea, but it's possible.
And the meaning is almost such as it sounds. People judge you by your appearance. A saying that says something opposite to this one is "nie ocenia się książki po okładce" - literally "you don't judge a book by its cover". You shouldn't judge people by how they look like, or by first impression after a single meeting.
kpc21 - Thanks for the clear explanation. As far as I know, the saying was in use in inter-war Poland [between WWI & WWII], and probably meant, as you've put it, "think about someone in a specific way".
