諺直訳

Matt Lindley*1(Text) & Marcus Oakley*2(Illustration) “Idioms of the World” http://www.hotelclub.com/blog/idioms-of-the-world-infographic/
Kathryn Bromwich “Surreal in translation: Matt Lindley and Marcus Oakley's foreign proverbs – in pictures “ http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/nov/29/-sp-surreal-in-translation-matt-lindley-marcus-oakleys-foreign-proverbs-in-pictures


世界の諺を英語に直訳してみるとどうなるか。
日本語代表として採り上げられているのが「顔が広い」(To have many friends 直訳はTo have a wide face)。ちょっと他の例と比べてインパクトが弱い気もするけれど。Matt Lindley氏曰く、


We all know that Asian countries have the best proverbs. Well, they also have some fantastic idioms too. “Having a wide face” means you have lots of friends and are well liked. It could be based on reality, as men with wide faces supposedly earn more money*3 and are more attractive to women*4. Or it could come from the Chinese concept of “face”, which is where we get our own term, “losing face”, from.


因みに、諺については、http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20061107/1162927176 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20061230/1167500322 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20070706/1183719432 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20071106/1194366206 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20080713/1215948395 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20080817/1218939934 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20090218/1234940110 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20091120/1258688054 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20100716/1279248034 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20101109/1289281535 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20110608/1307500817 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20111204/1322965428 http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20130130/1359564569で言及している。