There’s an expression in French, “enculage de mouches”. Literally means “fucking flies in the ass” and, figuratively, refers to being impossibly pedantic and nitpicky. Closest equivalent in English would be “splitting hairs” I think

Here’s one in Egyptian Arabic: “He who gets burnt by soup will blow on yoghurt”, meaning that someone who gets hurt once will bexome careful not to repeat the experience.

In Egyptian arabic we have

The world is a cucumber one day it’s in your hand, the other it’s in your ass

(Kama todeen todaan) Literal translation: As you give debt, you will owe debt. Alternative is as you judge you will be judged. Basically what goes around comes around

Do you have a feather on your head? When some one asks for special treatment, this is usually a response to that. Feather on his head is a reference to the sultan.

We stayed quiet so he came in with his donkey. Or we let him be, so he came with his donkey The proverb means don’t let people walk all over you

Show me the width of your shoulders Something I heard a lot growing up, basically means go away. To show the width of your shoulders, you show your back, hence the expression

In colloquial English, you can say that someone is an idiot with the construction “you absolute [noun]” or “you complete [noun]” or similar.

It doesn’t actually matter what the noun is, but it works better the more obscure or specific the thing is. For example “you absolute saucepan”, “you complete hose pipe”, or my personal favourite “you absolute strawberry plant”.

In Khmer, there’s a phrase “មិនដឹងខ្យល់” which literally translates to “Doesn’t know wind” as in they’re so dumb they don’t even know what wind is.

I guess it’s kind of like calling someone an air head but from a different angle.

I really like the german “Geburtstagskind”. It refers to a Person whose birthday is today but literally translates to “birthday child”. However you use it for any age. If its your grandfathers 80st birthday he still is the birthday child this day. Usually people just use the word without thinking about it , but i really like the idea that everyone can get childish again on their birthday. :)

Two that are related to falling

猿も木から落ちる [Even] monkeys fall out of trees [too]. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you’ll always get it right.

七転び八起き Fall down 7 times, get up 8. Pretty self-explanatory

• Flat out like a lizard drinking
• We’re not here to fuck spiders
• As dry as a dead dingo’s donger
• Forty cents short of a shout
• A few kangaroos loose in the top paddock

“Lukee kuin piru Raamattua” (Finnish).
Literally “to read like the Devil reads the Bible”.
Meaning to examine something in bad faith. Never heard it used it in context of the Bible or anything religious, but eg. when interpreting law or contract, looking for the details that could be twisted for your purpose, rather than what the text attempts to convey.

“Пиян като мотика”. Translates from Bulgarian to “Drunk as a mattock”. I remember asking my dad about this phrase when I was a kid - “Why? Do mattocks drink?” - and he answered “No, they fall down”. Classic dad.

“Das geht mir am Arsch vorbei.”

German for I don’t give a damn about that.

Literally: it passes by my ass.

You can also lift it up to a SFW level by saying “Das geht mir hinten vorbei.” (It passes behind me), or strengthen it with “Das geht mir weit hinten vorbei.” (It passes far behind me).

Ukrainian “не лізь поперед батька в пекло” (“don’t rush to hell before your father”) - a mix of “don’t be foolish / try to prove yourself / hurt yourself doing so” and also “let experienced people do their job / lead”.

Also Ukrainian “або пан або пропав” (“Either [you become] a lord, or you disappear”), an important risky choice, or sometimes used as YOLO of yesteryear.

此地无银三百两—literally “this location does not hide 15kg of silver”. imagine a sign saying that with an arrow pointing downwards

When I was young, myself and a group of friends were being accosted by a disheveled man on our walk home from the bar. We didn’t really understand what he was saying, but we were able to discern one phrase, as he told us to “Put the pussy on a chain wax”

We had no idea what it meant, and thought it was hilarious, so we’d oft repeat it at random.

Thinking about it now, I suddenly realize what he meant. He was referring to the woman in our group, telling us to pimp her out, by putting her up against a chain-link fence that were so plentiful in rough neighborhoods where we grew up.

So now I’m telling you, so that if you ever encounter this gentleman, you’ll know what he’s talking about 😶‍👍

A couple of figures of speech from Mexico that I find equally nonsensical:

Simón: Means yes.

Nelson: Means no.

Mátala(o) (kill it): to finish a drink or a snack.

Jalar (pull): To go somewhere or agree to a plan. You may also hear its long form “¿jalas o te pandeas?” (do you pull or do you bend?) meaning “are you coming or not?”.

¿Se va hacer o no se va a hacer la carnita asada? (Are we doing or not the carne asada?): It means “Is the plan still on?”

Chapulinear: There’s no literal translation for this one but I guess it would be like “grasshopper-ing”. It means seducing a friend’s partner.

Tirando el perro (throwing the dog): Flirting.

Arma la vaca (build the cow): Gathering money for a small collective purchase.

Huele a gas (Smells like gas): To leave. That’s kind of like an advanced figure of speech because it comes from Fuga, which in and of itself is a figure of speech meaning “to leave quickly”. It literally translates to “leak”, as in a gas line leak, because you’re supposed to leave in a way that mimics gas leaking from a pipe. So, when we need to leave but not as quickly, we don’t say “leak”, we say “smells like gas” implying there might be a leak.

Here’s a modern one:

Quesadilla: Means “that’s so sad” because it sounds like Qué sad (illa)