In case you’re thinking about snagging the first bite of the first moon cake (yuèbǐng = 月饼, the sometimes-tasty-sometimes-nasty traditional food of the holiday) after cracking the seal on the ungodly expensive package, just keep in mind some words of wisdom from YU:
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Chī shǐ yě děi chī ge jiār.
吃屎也得吃个尖儿。
“Has to eat the tip even when eating a turd” [quoting a traditional folksy saying; bonus BJS-Bucks to the reader who offers a more elegant translation, since this is a pretty hideous rendering]Jiùshi shuō, nǐ shénme shì dōu yào bájiānr
就是说，你什么事都要拔尖儿。
It means you always have to have the top-notch stuff
Happy and safe holidays to all. Get plenty of rest in advance of yet another one-day weekend, be sure to stay in your hotels, and don’t look out the windows.
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Comments 5
Even when eating ____ you should eat the best.
I censored myself for PBS’s sake, in case she happens to be your editor in chief here at the studios. Feel free to insert the appropriate post-alveolar fricative in the gap.
Posted 28 Sep 2009 at 8:07 pm ¶I’ll be looking for opportunities to use this.
I’m sure there ought to be a good English expression that comes close, but I just can’t recall at the moment. In the meantime, a rough translation:
If we only had dung to eat, you’d still want the crust.
Posted 29 Sep 2009 at 7:16 pm ¶@Kellen — no worries, I keep BJS in the R-rated category. By the time she’s old enough to read it, she’ll be bored out of her mind and won’t get farther than the second post.
Posted 30 Sep 2009 at 8:49 am ¶@Sima — nice improvement, “dung crust” is almost as viscerally unappealing as the 屎尖儿
My wife hadn’t heard this one, but knows a similar one with a different meaning:
吃屎都吃不着尖儿。
chī shǐ dōu chībuzhao jiānr.
and a variation:
吃屎都吃不着热乎。
chī shǐ dōu chībuzhao rèhu.
This means that a person is so slow that even when eating shit, they don’t even have time to eat the point (or warm part in the variation).
Posted 04 Oct 2009 at 12:37 pm ¶Randy, good to hear about more turd tip sayings. Apparently that part of the pie plays a larger role in Chinese linguistic consciousness than it does in English.
Maybe we should start collecting shǐ jiānr sayings…
Anyway, shǐ jiānr still makes me chortle every time I read it.
Posted 06 Oct 2009 at 7:26 pm ¶Post a Comment