There are ideas for blogs that have to be forced and provoked until they can be channeled into something useful, ideas that manifest themselves instantly but require days of writing and brainstorming, and then there’s this one: This is the blog post I never planned for, the one I had no idea I’d end up researching, and the one I accidentally thought of – and completed all in one sitting – while actually researching something else entirely.
I stumbled onto the idea for this blog while actually finishing up my previous post on my word of the year for 2017. As I was proofreading it, I found myself quite bored with the cliché proverb “You can’t have your cake and eat it too”. First, for a little bit of insight regarding the origin of this bizarre expression, it all began when the Duke of Norfolk wrote a letter to Thomas Cromwell in 1538 in which he explained how “a man can not have his cake and eat his cake”. Oddly enough, the lesser known fact about this statement is that after this first mention of the expression, it was actually reversed for the next couple of centuries to: “You cannot eat your cake and have your cake.” While President Franklin D. Roosevelt used this version of the saying in his 1940 State of the Union address, since then, the phrase has reverted back to the form we all know and use today.
That said, and despite finding the source of this idiom fascinating, I still felt that nowadays, this expression was too overused and hence, lost a bit of its luster. So for a fresher perspective, I thought I’d shop around for something more novel. And that’s when I discovered the fun fact that when the expression is translated into different languages, the statement being made changed quite drastically, though the message of one needing to give something up, in order to be able to have something else as he can’t have both things, remains the same. So, since I found some of these variations to be absolutely hilarious, I thought I’d share my favorite versions of it:
1) Albanian: Te hysh ne uje e te mos lagesh
To take a swim and not get wet.
2) Bulgarian: Не може и вълкът да е сит и агнето цяло
The wolf cannot be fed and the lamb intact.
3) Czech: Nejde sedět zadkem na dvou židlích
You can't sit on two chairs at the same time.
4) Danish: Man kan ikke både blæse og have mel i munden
You cannot both blow and have flour in your mouth.
5) French: Vouloir le beurre et l'argent du beurre
To want the butter and the money from (selling) the butter.
- Note: To stress the idea more, one can add et le sourire de la crémière to mean: “and a smile from the [female] shopkeeper.”
6) German (1): Wasch mir den Pelz, aber mach mich nicht nass
Wash my fur but don't get me wet.
7) German (2): Man kann nicht auf zwei Hochzeiten tanzen
One cannot dance at two weddings (at the same time).
8) Swiss German: Du chasch nit dr Füfer und s Weggli ha
You can't have the five cent coin and a bread roll.
9) Hebrew: אי אפשר להחזיק את המקל משתי הקצוות
It is impossible to hold the stick from both ends.
10) Hungarian: Egy fenékkel nem lehet két lovat megülni
It is impossible to ride two horses with one butt.
11) Italian: Volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca
To want the barrel full and the wife drunk.
12) Malayalam: കക്ഷത്തിലുള്ളത് പോകാനും പാടില്ല ഉത്തരത്തിലുള്ളത് വേണം താനും!
You want both the one on the roof, and the one in your armpit.
13) Portuguese: Querer ter sol na eira e chuva no nabal
Wanting the sun to shine on the threshing floor, while it rains on the turnip field.
14) Brazil: tentar assobiar e chupar cana
Trying to whistle while chewing on sugar cane.
15) Russian: И рыбку съесть, и в воду не лезть
Wanting to eat a fish without first catching it from the waters.
16) Spanish: estar en Misa y repicando or estar en Misa y tocar la campana
To be both at Mass and in the belfry, bell-ringing.
17) Argentina: la chancha y los veinte
The pig and the twenties.
- Note: This is in reference to the traditional piggybanks that children used to keep for storing 20 cents. Since there is no other way to retrieve the coins than by breaking the piggybank, the expression shows how only one of the two scenarios is possible, but not both. The expression can be emphasized by adding y la máquina de hacer chorizos, which translates into: “and the machine to make sausage.”
18) Tamil: மீசைக்கும் ஆசை கூழுக்கும் ஆசை
Desire to have both the moustache and to drink the soup.
Finally, it’s worth noting that while all these languages reiterate the same point that you can’t have it both ways by consuming the entire cake and simultaneously still having some cake leftover, the good news is: You can instead devour your treat while reading this blog at the same time. And that’s sort of the same thing ☺
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