{"id":9598,"date":"2017-08-31T20:56:16","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T20:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=9598"},"modified":"2017-09-11T13:53:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T13:53:50","slug":"three-ways-to-say-keeping-your-nose-to-the-grindstone-in-irish-without-using-the-words-for-nose-or-grindstone-is-e-sin-a-ra-cora-cainte-ata-difriuil-ar-fad-i-bhfoclaiocht-ach-mar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/three-ways-to-say-keeping-your-nose-to-the-grindstone-in-irish-without-using-the-words-for-nose-or-grindstone-is-e-sin-a-ra-cora-cainte-ata-difriuil-ar-fad-i-bhfoclaiocht-ach-mar\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Ways to Say “Keeping Your Nose to the Grindstone” in Irish without Using the Words for “Nose” or “Grindstone” –\u00a0 Is \u00e9 sin a r\u00e1, cora cainte at\u00e1 difri\u00fail ar fad i bhfocla\u00edocht ach mar a gc\u00e9anna (beagnach) i gciall"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the most recent blogpost (nasc th\u00edos<\/strong>), we did some discussion of noses (sr\u00f3na<\/strong>) and grindstones (clocha l\u00edofa<\/strong>), which led to an interesting vocabulary work-out.\u00a0 In today’s post, we’ll actually look at some more traditional ways of saying “to keep your nose to the grindstone,” none of which mention noses or grindstones.\u00a0\u00a0 This is typical of proverbial, figurative, and metaphorical expressions as you go from language to language.\u00a0 Sometimes the imagery is the same but often the imagination and wit is there, but expressed completely differently.<\/p>\n

Before we actually start, let’s look at a few pairs of identical idioms and differing idioms, using one of the most popular comparisons (samhlacha<\/strong>, from samhail<\/strong>, simile, also likeness, model, etc.).\u00a0 Both Irish and English use coal, pitch, and soot in referring to black (chomh dubh le gual \/ pic \/ s\u00faiche<\/strong>), but I’ve never heard the exact equivalent of “chomh dubh leis an mbac<\/strong>” in English.\u00a0 Sometimes translated as “as black as soot,” the word “bac<\/strong>” doesn’t literally mean “soot;” it means the fire hob, the hob being a projection or ledge in the back or side of a fireplace for cooking or warming food.\u00a0 BTW, “bac<\/strong>” can also mean a hindrance or barrier and also shows up as a verb, as in “N\u00e1 bac leis<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

We also have the contrasting pair “chomh dubh le Poll T\u00ed Liab\u00e1in<\/strong>,” which is clearly distinctively Irish, and “as black as Erebus” (Greek).\u00a0 \u00a0“Poll T\u00ed Liab\u00e1in<\/strong>” (Hole of the House of Liab\u00e1in\/Liab\u00e1n) is used to describe several locations in Ireland that are either sinkholes or bottomless pits or blow-holes in rocky coastlines or (!)\u00a0 the bed of Diarmaid and Gr\u00e1inne as they fled from Fionn.\u00a0 According to some legends, the “Poll<\/strong>” swallowed up “Teach Liab\u00e1in<\/strong>,” much like a sinkhole might today.\u00a0\u00a0 Why did “t\u00ed<\/strong>” change to “teach<\/strong>“? \u00a0“T\u00ed<\/strong>” means “of (a) house” and “teach<\/strong>” simply means “house.”\u00a0\u00a0 Anyway, Erebus, in contrast, was an ancient Greek god of darkness, so each comparison is specific to its own culture.\u00a0 The curious thing to me is that a dictionaries may say something like “chomh dubh le Poll T\u00ed Liab\u00e1in<\/strong>” means “as black as Erebus,” while, really, I would say the phrases are equivalents, but not translations of each other.\u00a0 Have you encountered any situations like this, as you’ve pursued your study of Irish? \u00a0For a few more Irish samhlacha<\/strong>, see the nasc<\/strong> below.<\/p>\n

Anyway, now, three phrases considered the equivalent of “to keep your nose to the grindstone,” using completely different imagery.<\/p>\n

1) an taos a choinne\u00e1il leis on oigheann<\/strong>, lit. to keep the dough with the oven<\/p>\n

You might recognize “taos<\/strong>,” here meaning “dough,” from phrases like “taos fiacla<\/strong>” (toothpaste)\u00a0 or “taos \u00e9isc”<\/strong> (fish paste).<\/p>\n

2) do ph\u00edce a choinne\u00e1il s\u00e1ite<\/strong>,\u00a0lit. to keep your pike thrust<\/p>\n

The word “p\u00edce<\/strong>” has several meanings: a pike (in the military sense, as a weapon), a fork (in the agricultural sense, a pitchfork), and a peak, either of sails or hats, but not, afaik, of a mountain (that would usually be “binn<\/strong>” or “stuaic<\/strong>“).<\/p>\n

“S\u00e1ite<\/strong>” comes from the verb “s\u00e1igh<\/strong>” (thrust).<\/p>\n

3) do dh\u00e1 cheann a choinne\u00e1il i dtalamh<\/strong>, lit. your two “ends” to keep in the ground, may also be translated as “to drudge.”<\/p>\n

This one is especially interesting to translate, since there are several possibilities and I’ve seen several interpretations. \u00a0\u00a0Normally, of course, “ceann<\/strong>” means “head,” but since most of us don’t have two heads, it must mean something else.<\/p>\n

It could refer to agricultural work, bending over, where the two ends refer to the feet, at one end, and the hands and\/or head at the other end.\u00a0 But I’ve also seen the “dh\u00e1 cheann<\/strong>” here interpreted as the two “feet” (sticking to the task and not wandering off, I suppose) but that doesn’t suggest to me the grueling nature of constantly working in a bent-over position.<\/p>\n

Of course, the phrase could take on a completely different meaning if we were talking about some bicephalic creatures like Zak and Wheezie (the two-headed dragon on Dragon Tales<\/em>) or Orthos (aka Orthrus, a two-headed dog in Greek mythology, sibling to his more famous brother Cerberus, usually depicted as three-headed).\u00a0 Or the occasional real-world two-headed snake, turtle, calf, or lamb (saw one that had been taxidermied in the museum in Llanidloes), which probably spent most of their life pretty close to “an talamh<\/strong>,” anyway.<\/p>\n

One thing about all three of these that I find interesting is that all of them seem to emphasize the idea of working hard and sticking to your task but not exactly the aspect of not being distracted.\u00a0 Maybe there’s not much difference, but in English, if I simply wanted to indicate “working hard,” with long hours, I might say “burning the midnight oil” or “burning the candle at both ends” or “working my fingers to the bone.”\u00a0 To me, “keeping your nose to the grindstone” also implies not getting distracted by other tasks or by the temptation to do things for fun. \u00a0Since we never really keep our nose to the grindstone (ouch!), it suggests to me really focusing on the task with a type of tunnel vision.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s some more choices for you, and some interesting vocabulary along the way.\u00a0 \u00a0SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn <\/strong><\/p>\n

Naisc:\u00a0<\/strong>Sr\u00f3na, Pr\u00f3boscais, Clocha L\u00edofa agus Oighinn: The Irish for \u2018Noses,\u2019 \u2018Proboscises,\u2019 \u2018Grindstones,\u2019 and \u2018Ovens,\u2019 and Why This Selection!<\/a>\u00a0Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Aug 29, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Agus\u00a0 maidir le neacha d\u00e9cheannacha<\/strong>: \u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Polycephaly<\/p>\n

For a little bit more on “samhlacha,” you might want to check out:\u00a0Li\u00fadair go dt\u00ed a) an Caisle\u00e1n Nua, b) an Aithin n\u00f3 go c) Toraigh?<\/a>Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on May 15, 2012 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) In the most recent blogpost (nasc th\u00edos), we did some discussion of noses (sr\u00f3na) and grindstones (clocha l\u00edofa), which led to an interesting vocabulary work-out.\u00a0 In today’s post, we’ll actually look at some more traditional ways of saying “to keep your nose to the grindstone,” none of which mention noses or grindstones.\u00a0\u00a0 This…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":9610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[376762,298638,489756,489755,211531,489773,489713,489770,4666,489751,3151,489778,489762,489754,4999,489760,111360,275329,5437,489750,390315,460868,489767,2204,489765,489768,376643,489757,218787,489769,111695,489431,2354,489774,489775,489771,489759,309588,489761,489772,489766,489752,489780,489779,6932,489758,289975,384419,489764,489763,489777,172,489776],"class_list":["post-9598","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-bac","tag-bone","tag-both-ends","tag-burn","tag-candle","tag-cerberus","tag-cheann","tag-choinneail","tag-chomh","tag-cloch-liofa","tag-darkness","tag-dragon-tales","tag-drudge","tag-dtalamh","tag-dubh","tag-erebus","tag-figurative","tag-finger","tag-greek","tag-grindstone","tag-gual","tag-hard","tag-hob","tag-idiom","tag-llanidloes","tag-mbac","tag-metaphorical","tag-midnight","tag-myth","tag-na-bac-teach","tag-nose","tag-oigheann","tag-oil","tag-orthos","tag-orthrus","tag-phice","tag-pic","tag-pice","tag-poll-ti-liabain","tag-polycephaly","tag-proverbial","tag-saite","tag-samhlacha","tag-simile-samhail","tag-sron","tag-suiche","tag-talamh","tag-taos","tag-three-headed","tag-two-headed","tag-wheezie","tag-work","tag-zak"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9598"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9615,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9598\/revisions\/9615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}