Polish sayings

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?

Tak to jest na tym świecie?

I think "z deszczu pod rynne" means "rain into the gutter".

"Out of the frying pan into the fire would be "Z patelni w ogień".

In fact Tischner's classification of truth presents:
- świnto prawdo = holy truth
- tyż prawdo = well, ekhm...
- gówno prawdo = BS truth

If anyone can recommend a good source for Polish sayings in English and Polish, please post the details. Thanks!

krysia
Jak cię widzą, tak cię piszą - how they see you, that's how they perceive you

I think it almost literally means: What you see is what you get !

Actually what you mean is what you see is how you write. Jak (how) cie (you) Widze (you see) (widza they see) jak ty pisze how you write

Jak oni widza jak oni pisza how they see is how they write.

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?

"(...)gdy się czasem Polka Panu Bogu uda, to już, mówiąc po prostu, klękajcie narody!"
This quotation comes from drama written by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

I myself prefer Zagłoba's tales, like: "Wszelki duch Pana Boga chwali!" = OMG!

Merged: Bits of Polish folk wisdom...

For the benefit of wannabe and plastic-card "Poles" and all other not familiar with these sayings; (Sorry for the lack of dacritics):


cropped

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

"It's all the same whether one lives for a hundred years, a year or even a week. Everything always lies ahead."

Łyżka aka Marek

Thank you very much!

Merged: Any Familiar With This Old Phrase From Poland?

Yak shem vidju, tak shem pishu

Does anyone know the meaning and historic background of that phrase?

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".

It is still normally used.

In Poland the saying goes: a man who is only a little better looking than a devil is handsome enough.

Today often converted to tonący brzydko się chwyta - the drowning man catches dirty.

Why the saying Kobyła ma mały bok is special?

I'm pretty sure you want those for whom the Polish language is not their first to answer

Able was I ere I saw Elba....

No, gumi, it`s catch as catch can, anybody can answer. :)

Yes. maf, it is a palindrome which can be read both ways.

This Polish one is better coz it makes more sense: the old mare has a small side.

My favorite palindrome is in Spanish "Dábale arroz a la zorra el abad" (if you don't count the accent on the a)

It means "The abbot gave rice to the she-fox".

In a linguistics class they played it backwards.... and it was still very understandable (not true of any English palindrome that I know of).

How understandable would kobyła ma mały bok be played backwards? the stresses would be in different places of course

kobyłamamałybok

kobyłamamałybok

It never occured to me to pay attention to them. They turn an innocent play on words into a pronunciation drill. :):)


Ha! Zorra is a she-fox while Zorro is a he-fox!

I forgot to mention, in modern Iberian Spanish zorra is also used like suka (b|tch)