Tuesday, April 06, 2010

More hearts and other figures of speech

There is a Khmer pop song around these days with a line "two hearts", I'm told it means unfaithful. I thought that was interesting as in Hebrew "two hearts/minds" means you are telling a lie. While in English being in 2 minds about something means you haven't decided yet. And two faced in English means you are a hypocrite.

A heavy heart in Khmer means you are persevering, while a light heart means you aren't standing your ground. Maybe like a feather in the wind, it is light so it gets blown around easily, while a heavy rock will stand firm.

If a room is messy, in English we may call it a pig sty (sp?) as pigs are known for being messy. In Khmer they say a "pig's nest". Yes , nest as in what birds live in, it is not what they call pig's houses, but they think of nests as chaotic and messy. So to emphasise the point they say call a messy room a "messy dwelling of a messy animal" .

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