Idioms, Adages, and Aphorisms

[Rhetorica]

A lively language needs more than just rules and conventions—it needs stock phrases, euphemisms, and sayings that capture how its speakers view and interpret the world. The most well-worn adages can be powerful indicators of a culture's core values, and the phrasing and metaphors used to describe them strongly reflective of what activities are central to their daily lives.

So let's make some up! The rules: translate the previous idiom/adage into your conlang and culture, explain the translation, and then post another idiom. Feel free to translate more than one past saying, as long as you cover the most recently-posted one as well.

For clarity's sake, an idiom is a metaphor or euphemism used to describe something common, whereas an adage is a whole saying that uses a metaphor to offer advice. More generally, an aphorism is any saying that offers advice (but direct aphorisms are not as interesting to translate!) Salmoneus has given some solid advice on constructing them here.

Feel free to provide challenges that are only found in obscure languages or that have been invented for a conlang—just explain what they mean in brackets.

(Apparently this has been done before. Well, let's do it again!)

Example: to kick the bucket (to die) (see Wikipedia's list of translations for this example)

Lilitika: a stíara empreshé (to drop the pen/brush)
The Lilitai are very productive artists and writers, and maintain that one's life is guided in part by the motions of a mythical pen writing a story. To drop the quill involved thus means to end writing this story. (They're not very big on direct discussions of death; the normal word for it is 'neptarleshé', 'to be recovered' by the goddess of the afterlife.)

Next: don't burn your bridges (don't break ties with or offend people who might be useful later)

[Drydic]

Deye ēfs lĕrehóšah eimahtēroš flísvaš íčir, óhoš mahtášos ňúnzvaš daríyaiǧ eimóhtov. "Don't pillage the trade wagons on the road now if you want to buy merchants' grain later."
The Tzuman nations have been at each other's throats for millenia, but the trade routes cris-crossing the Kanašu Peninsula are remarkably free of banditry. They're modeled on the Classical Phoenicians (and to a lesser extent Greeks), traders first and foremost, even in remote rural areas.

next up: check what you're buying carefully, it's what you'll end up with. (an oldey-time version of WYSIWYG.)

[Matrix]

Maja:
Ki jazmok falutar ki jazmok kaitsiet da.
[ki ˈd͡ʒazmok ˈfalutaːɹɾ ki ˈd͡ʒazmok ˈkai̯tsiɛt da]
the exciting competitor the exciting fight hold
A good opponent is a good fight.

Fighting is one of the Two Arms Which Hold Up the World, in Maja culture.

Speaking of that, how about the next thing is whatever your conculture calls the things in life it holds most important?

[ObsequiousNewt]

Speaking of that, how about the next thing is whatever your conculture calls the things in life it holds most important?

rônomunāmmôje nôrimrāmnavêgmmemôje nōmōmôje ("the tallest tree")

Next: no rest for the wicked

[Herr Dunkel]

Next: no rest for the wicked

Kti: <danækǣ zārikināk nǣd asratæi denudǣk danænædem>
It translates to: "you sinned since time immemorial and now your sins chase after you"

Next: to exact revenge

[maıráí]

Su:
sóndo yu'ŋí
[ˈson˦doə˩ jʊ˩ˈŋi˦]
to tip the teacup

Telling fortunes with or divining solutions from tea dregs is very popular in Su; to tip someone's cup over is a physical way of saying "Fuck you!", and to tip it metaphorically is to cause them problems and screw up their future.

Next: birds of a feather flock together (like attracts like; people tend to associate with similar people)

[Rhetorica]

As' atshai uvínai turanlizé kai: the stars scatter themselves. (Implying that constellations and star clusters are formed by choice.)

Next: a nod's as good as a wink (to a blind horse) (subtle cues may be equivalent when expected—but when unexpected, they are worthless.)

[Matrix]

Maja:
Nalderuz van ki kemorado ker ki sar han gasc.
alone in the select-NMLZ of the dragon go ATTEMPTIVE
[ˈnaldɛːɹɾuz van ki kɛmoːɹɾˈado kɛːɹɾ ki saːɹɾ han gaʃ]
Trying to grab the dragon's attention by yourself.

Next: up shit creek without a paddle (in a bad situation with no way to get out of it)

[Rhetorica]

apas a mokalvai, yolí genarenú íré: to not have a path in the dunes. (Implying also toxic levels of UV radiation.)

Next: the higher the stand, the harder they fall (the more power you have, the more catastrophic it is to lose it.)

[Yng]

Ma Ngòòyi cùnacùn uusòpíɽaʔà!
Ma Ngòò=i cùnacùn u-ʁ-t=píɽ=ʔà!
Ma Ngòò=TOP public_disembowelment PASS-do-PERF.REAL=disgustingly=it_is_known
They disembowelled (even) Ma Ngòò!

Ma Ngòò was a very powerful minister in the Tsi Empire often referred to proverbially because of his grisly demise (public disembowelment or cùnacùn) after he had fallen from favour. This actually is probably more often said to chide arrogant people than it is to express that the most powerful have the furthest to fall but it probs overlaps reasonably well with 'the bigger they are the harder they fall' in usage

next: to agree with someone just because you're sick of arguing

[ObsequiousNewt]

Ma Ngòòyi cùnacùn uusòpíɽaʔà!
Ma Ngòò=i cùnacùn u-ʁ-t=píɽ=ʔà!
Ma Ngòò=TOP public_disembowelment PASS-do-PERF.REAL=disgustingly=it_is_known
They disembowelled (even) Ma Ngòò!

Ma Ngòò was a very powerful minister in the Tsi Empire often referred to proverbially because of his grisly demise (public disembowelment or cùnacùn) after he had fallen from favour. This actually is probably more often said to chide arrogant people than it is to express that the most powerful have the furthest to fall but it probs overlaps reasonably well with 'the bigger they are the harder they fall' in usage

next: to agree with someone just because you're sick of arguing

English: to get off the Internet

[Astraios]

apas a mokalvai, yolí genarenú íré: to not have a path in the dunes. (Implying also toxic levels of UV radiation.)

Why?

[Rhetorica]

It's mentioned briefly in the introduction; the Lilitai lived on a very harsh world for many thousands of years as slaves before discovering their heritage. If they stayed out in the sun for too long, it would burn them seriously. The environment was also completely contaminated with heavy metals, which the native organisms used extensively in their biology.

(haponí) dazénú thedúré: to bite the (dirty) cloth (in preparation for receiving corporal punishment for disagreeing)

Next: the early bird gets the worm (punctuality brings rewards)

[äreo]

Thósn fósa meólni bente co tólni.
God.PR.SG.GEN favor.PL.NOM good.SUPL-ADV earn.PRES.MDP C early-ADV
God's favor is best earned early.

next: Horace's pitchfork (attempts to undo or disregard Nature)

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

The Arkheans are very naturalistic and death-obsessed, so most of their saying are death related-even if it’s meaning is not.

Гашєл Некроняциз.
Gašel Nékroňacýz.
Pot of Immortals.
(Immortals try to defy nature and undo nature's progress of the death of life by cheating death.)

next: hit the road (to move on, journey)

[Rhetorica]

Rísarindré, asa shúthímanai (osha vanshúizúin).
Permit the winds [of fate] (so they may blow).

(The Lilitai take the winds of fate and the story of one's life very literally.)

In regular use Lilitika is predominantly SOV with no change in word order to indicate mood. However, the inflection is significantly thorough that argument word order is unnecessary, and aphorisms often make use of this by putting the verb at the head (with a comma, which was independently re-invented to indicate rearrangement.)

Next: if you give a mouse a cookie... (charity or humouring may result in unwanted obligations)

[Pogostick Man]

Next: if you give a mouse a cookie... (charity or humouring may result in unwanted obligations)

Ngade n Tim Ar ségü r mazngúd "don't make peace with Westerners"

This expression ultimately dates to even before the time when the Jädäwan Empire existed. Generally speaking, cultural trends on the Tim Ar side of the river Sovadegh tend to feature patrilinial societies, while those on the other side (the west/southwest) feature matrilineal ones. The Tim Ar viewed such societies (and still do to a large degree) as troublesome at best and vastly inferior at worst.

Next: to be in a group of slackers who expect you to do all the work for them, only to deliberately fail to ensure that they don't get the good grade/accolades/praise

[Rhetorica]

(Sarasí) Lilitika: (Suréú ibedikara alya híñkidré, des) alambedakal glatindré.
(If you cannot fight the current, then) swim toward the waterfall.

This is a general aphorism about fear, suggesting that there's no point in enduring anticipation of the inevitable.

next: heart of gold (a trustworthy, honest, or morally upstanding person)

[احمکي ارش-ھجن]

Кизыкица Іяһрасю
Kýzykýca Iyahraśů
Crows of Iyahra’s

or

Кизыкица Азосю
Kýzykýca Åzośů
Crows of Ahzoh's

These two idioms denote a moral person.

Next:
needle in a haystack (a really hard object to find, nearly impossible to find)

[Herr Dunkel]

needle in a haystack (a really hard object to find, nearly impossible to find)

Kti: <kaksīk dadrahākatai> "a citizen most generic" - for persons
Kti: <ūrkame dai'ēkke> "alike copper inside clocks" - in general

Next: "et tu Brute?"

[Salmoneus]

For clarity's sake, an idiom is a metaphor or euphemism used to describe something common, whereas an adage is a whole saying that uses a metaphor to offer advice. More generally, an aphorism is any saying that offers advice (but direct aphorisms are not as interesting to translate!)

Not quite. An idiom is any expression common in the language that must be treated as a lexical unit in its own right - sometimes because the meaning is different from what would be imagined from its parts (which includes metaphors but isn't limited to them - eg the way americans say "I could care less" is idiomatic, as it has the opposite meaning from what those words would ordinarily mean), sometimes because it employs morphology or syntax different from those that appear in the rest of the language, and sometimes because it uses lexical items that are not found outside idioms. Commonly-used metaphors can be idioms, but they're not the only sort of idiom.

The essence of being an aphorism is brevity - and originality. That's the big difference between an aphorism and an adage (which, no, does not need to be metaphorical, though they often are) - an adage is old and worn to the point of becoming meaningless, whereas an aphorism is (or at least was) a novelty. But in any case, an aphorism doesn't have to offer advice - it just has to say something true or believed to be true, so observations and opinions can be as aphoristic as advice.
For instance, some non-advisory aphorisms by Wilde:
"Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions."
"A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it."
"The ages live in history through their anachronisms."

Or Nietzsche (picking some at random):
"He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a despiser. "
"By means of music the very passions enjoy themselves."
"The belly is the reason why man does not so readily take himself for a God."
"When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is generally something wrong with her sexual nature."
"Even concubinage has been corrupted--by marriage."

[Rhetorica]

I did actually define an idiom as being a metaphor or euphemism, not just a metaphor, but close enough. I'll put a link to your post in the OP.

Íomanezinení Lilitika: Ra hemai dí, Zéa? "Even you, sweetheart?"
(Notably this uses NOM instead of VOC for "Zéa," suggesting baby-talk bad grammar, and is fossilized even in later dialects to use the old -ai adverbial suffix.)

This is one I'll probably change into Oksirapho (Lilitika's parent language) when possible, since military and betrayal were much more natural conversation topics in it.

Fun trivia—Suetonius claims Caesar actually said "Καὶ σὺ τέκνον;" (And you, child?)

Next—continuing with Caesar, "The die is cast."

[Soap]

So the old idiom thread kicked the bucket? I thought we turned pruning off, but I guess searching for it now would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Oh well, I guess the die is cast and we might as well use the new thread now for convenience. But I gotta hit the road because my shift starts in 30 minutes and I;ll be up shit creek without a paddle if I show up late again so Ill contribute to this thread later. No rest for the wicked, I guess.

[sirred]

The die is cast:
ere ta äšin
The liver has been read.

The will of the gods, which has been seen through divination, is immutable.

"Any problem solved is a new problem made." - Karl Pilkington

[Arzena]

"Any problem solved is a new problem made." - Karl Pilkington

táékúwoká tháló7í tsá oe7ellállé phatótsá7é
He eats meat, and the whole village arrives.

Next: To shoot the breeze