愛屋及烏 (ài wū jí wū) Literally: love the house and its crow Figuratively: involvement with somebody and everyone connected to that person Explanation: When you love someone and, by extension, have great care for everything connected to him/her (people or things). It is said that in the Yin period at the end of the Shang…
Month: September 2021
073. The Seven Chamois
073. The Seven Chamois (Los Siete Rebecos) There was once a king who had seven sons and his wife was expecting an eighth child. The king had placed all his hope in the belief that the eighth will be a girl, and so great was his desire for a daughter that he announced that, if…
072. Colliers In The Palace
072. Colliers In The Palace (Los Carboneros En El Palacio) Once upon a time there was a childless couple who lived hand-to-mouth as coal miners. Not a day passed by without them having quarrels, sometime started by one, and other times started by the other. Once, a priest arrived at their hamlet and preached a…
Āi hóng biàn yě (哀鴻遍野 – 哀鸿遍野)
哀鴻遍野 (Āi hóng biàn yě) Literally: Grief-stricken Eastern Bean Geese filling up the land Figuratively: Land swarming with disaster victims Explanation: When everywhere in the land there are cries of distress from refugees of natural disasters or man-made catastrophes. Grief-stricken Eastern Bean Geese (哀鴻) refers to the wailing of these wild geese. In the Book…
071. A Bet With The Devil
A Bet With The Devil (Una Apuesta Con El Diablo) They say that many years ago when the Devil and St. Crispin were together, the Devil dedicated himself to tempting the saint, and St. Crispin always [managed to] escape traps that the Devil had laid out for him [and thus was able] to retain his…