Thursday 7 June 2012

Euro Krakdown

a bag of these on your head?
that is what the Sun is rather cleverly calling it, as England fans arrive in Krakow for the start of Euro 2012.  They also cite "a local newspaper" as saying that the police will come down on any England fans who cause trouble, like "a bag of anvils".  Charmed by this expression, I looked further. My command of Polish is minimal, but Google Translate gave me this, "torba z kowadeł" for "bag of anvils".  I then consulted Polish colleagues, none of whom had heard the expression, though they did tell me there are various expressions in Polish involving bricks and hammers for dealing extreme penalties to malfeasors. I found two local newspaper in Krakow, and a search on their sites did not reveal that expression.  But then it is likely to be wrong, as Google Translate does not actually translate anything. Anyone help? 

1 comment:

Jonny said...

I can't find any reference to "bag of anvils" being particularly Polish. The earliest reference in English I can find is 1996, and my guess is that it's just a hyperbolic metaphor, deliberately exaggerating the more common "bag of hammers". I would expect that it's migrated into Polish as a direct translation, and is equally rare in that language.