Poets & Writers
Published on Poets & Writers (https://www.pw.org)

Home > Tomatoes on Your Eyes

Tomatoes on Your Eyes [1]

Poetry [2]
4.2.19

TED Talks have been translated into over one hundred languages, and their translators are often challenged by peculiar turns of phrase. Inspired by this predicament, TED asked translators [3] from around the world to share their favorite idioms along with baffling literal English translations such as “the thief has a burning hat,” a Russian phrase that means, “he has an uneasy conscience that betrays itself.” This week, write a poem that incorporates one or more of these eccentric sayings and create a world in which the literal interpretation holds water. Use the five senses—sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch—to help illustrate these verbal expressions and your interpretation of them.


Source URL:https://www.pw.org/content/tomatoes_on_your_eyes

Links
[1] https://www.pw.org/content/tomatoes_on_your_eyes [2] https://www.pw.org/genre/poetry [3] https://blog.ted.com/40-idioms-that-cant-be-translated-literally/