"Words stick in the throat", "fail to express one’s meaning" or "have a bone in one's throat" can be expressed simply by the Chinese proverb "Boiling dumplings in a teapot - no way to pour them out" (It is a pun. The Chinese characters "pour" and "speak" have the same pronunciation). If we use a teapot for boiling dumplings, we have to put the dumplings in from the top, yet have no way to pour them out from the teapot mouth. Therefore we have the connotation - no way to pour them out - to indicate that under certain circumstances it's hard to explain everything clear, for that we are uneloquent and clumsy in speaking, or that we feel uneasy or awkward to speak out the real truth...This is a very common proverb among the Chinese.
By Explore Cultural China
No comments:
Post a Comment