Apparently, in Corsican they have a saying: "Mariteddu Tamant'e Un Ditu Ieddu Voli Essa Rivaritu": literally, "a husband must be respected even if he is very short." I wonder what inspired this phrase? Do women tend to be taller in Corsica, or were there a group of men who were sick and tired of being not taken seriously because of their low stature, and decided to take matters into their own hands...and embed this in the language?
Heh.
On my jetlag-fuelled morning Interneting, I excavated a fascinating article on Digg called "Weird and wonderful foreign phrases...that just don't translate" from the UK Mirror. The article reviewed a book called Toujours Tingo: More Extraordinary Words To Change The Way We See The World by Adam Jacot de Boinod. Among the gems offered up by the article include:
Pesamenteiro - Portuguese: one who joins groups of mourners at the home of a dead person, apparently to offer condolences but in reality is just there for the refreshments.
Kanjus Makkhic[h]us - Hindi: a person so miserly that if a fly falls into his cup of tea, he'll fish it out and suck it dry before throwing it away. [usreeb's Note: in Hindi, "milk" may be replaced by "tea" as well; the beverage is variable between the two.]
Tartle - Scottish: to hesitate when you are introducing someone whose name you can't quite remember.
Cafune - Brazilian Portuguese: the tender running of one's fingers through the hair of one's mate.
More interesting phrases are offered up by a Times UK article, "Lost for words? A book to help you find them."
What are some interesting phrases in your language that don't have exact English equivalents?