Italian Sayings: Group 2

The theme for today's proverbs is GATTI... cats! If you are curious, I also did some Polish proverbs about cats.

Here are the Italian proverbs:

Quando il gatto dorme, i topi ballano.
When the cat's asleep, the mice dance.
Notes: Compare the English saying, "When the cat's away, the mice play." Italian has just one word for both mouse and rat: topo. Mickey Mouse is Topolino! Italian topo is originally from Latin talpa, "mole." From the same root as Italian ballare we get English "ballet."

Al buio, tutti i gatti sono bigi.
In the dark all cats are grey.
Notes: The idea is that, under certain conditions, differences that seemed important simply vanish. Compare the English saying, "All cats are grey in the dark." Sometimes this is given a sexual twist by making the cats female, Al buio tutte le gatte sono bigie, the idea being that whether a woman is beautiful or ugly doesn't matter once the lights are out. Italian bigio is related to English "beige."

Un gatto può ben guardare un re.
A cat can well look at a king.
Notes: Compare the English saying, "A cat may look at a king." The idea is that even someone lowly has the right to look at the king, i.e. you can't stop anyone from just looking at something. In Spanish, it's a dog instead: Un perro puede mirar al rey.

Prima lusingare, e poi graffiare, è arte dei gatti.
First flatter and then scratch is the art of cats.
Notes: Anyone who has a cat knows that cats do sometimes unaccountably give you a bite or a scratch for no reason at all. And yes, Italian graffiare comes from the same root as graffiti. It's like the cat is a graffiti artist, with our skin as canvas!

Meglio essere capo di gatto che coda di leone.
Better to be the head of a cat than the tail of lion.
Notes: Compare the Biblical saying, "A living dog is better than a dead lion."

Cavar le castagne dal fuoco colla zampa del gatto.
To take chestnuts from the far with the cat's paw.
Notes: We use the phrase "cat's paw" in English too, and that phrase, like this Italian proverb, comes from the story of the monkey who tricked the cat into getting the chestnuts out of the fire, with the result that the monkey got the chestnuts while the cat got only a burnt paw.

Il gatto, scottato dall'acqua calda, teme anche quella fredda.
The cat scalded by hot water also fears water that is cold.
Notes: Compare the English saying, "Scalded cats fear even cold water." Italian scottato is s-cottato; the poor cat has basically been cooked, cottato, by the hot water.

Quando il gatto non può arrivare al lardo, dice che è rancido.
When the cat can't reach the lard, he says it's rancid.
Notes: This is like the famous fable of the fox and the grapes, but this time with a cat and lard: sour grapes! rancid fat!

Se i gatti sapessero volare, le beccacce sarebbero rare.
If cats could fly, the woodcocks would be rare.
Notes: Note the rhyme in Italian: volare-rare. To make an English rhyme, we could say, "If cats could fly, there'd be fewer birds in the sky." You may not have heard of a woodcock bird before, but you have probably heard of "cocker spaniels," a breed of dog that got its name from hunting woodcocks. I love these contrary-to-fact conditionals in Latin, so I'll be sure to make a collection of "Se... sarebbe..." proverbs later on.

Quando il gatto lecca il pelo, viene acqua, giù dal cielo.
When the cat licks its fur, rain's going to pour from the sky.
Notes: There are all kinds of proverbs that express superstitions. Like the previous proverb, this one rhymes: pelo-cielo. To make it rhyme in English, we could maybe say: "When the cat licks its skin, rain is sure to begin," or something like that.

And here is today's audio (I'm not a native speaker, so this is TTS-generated):



Plus a LOLcat: