Absurd translation as a pickup line

November 22, 2004 7:58 AM

Translation help: How do you say "My grandmother has a blue chicken" in your native tongue? More inside...

A good friend of mine passed away last week. He was an eccentric charmer and collected translations of this phrase in every language he could. He would use this phrase to begin conversations, and friendships, with beautiful women and interesting strangers, who were always surprised to hear their native tongue used to say such an absurd thing. As a memorial to him, I am trying to collect translations of this saying. He was most fond of saying this phrase in African, Asian and Nordic languages. Any help is much appreciated.

posted by mds35 to writing & language (61 comments total)

Tagalog: May asul na manok ang aking lola.
Spanish: Mi abuela tiene un pollo azul.

I have a friend of similar eccentricity who collects various translations of "I don't like the cheese because it is old and moldy."
posted by brownpau at 8:20 AM on November 22, 2004

My Finnish is not the best, but this should get the idea across:

Finnish: Minun isoaitilla on sininen kukko.
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:24 AM on November 22, 2004

German: Meine Grossmutter hat ein blaues Huhn.
posted by cahlers at 8:26 AM on November 22, 2004

Irish : Ta cearc gorm ag mo sheanmathair.

[pronounced] Taw keaark gurm egg mah hyaan-wahir
posted by kenaman at 8:39 AM on November 22, 2004

Danish: Min bedstemor har en blå kylling
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:42 AM on November 22, 2004

(rusty) Hindi: Meri naani-ji ko ek neel cheeza hai.

Anyone know Amharak? (Thank you everyone).
posted by mds35 at 8:45 AM on November 22, 2004

Swedish: Min mormor har en blå kyckling.

My condolences on your loss, mds35.
posted by McGuillicuddy at 8:54 AM on November 22, 2004

Norwegian: Min bestemor har en blå kylling.
posted by noius at 9:00 AM on November 22, 2004

PL/SQL:

SET SERVEROUT ON
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('My grandmother has a blue chicken');
END;
/
posted by neilkod at 9:07 AM on November 22, 2004

/me wonders why his & n b s p ; was stripped
posted by neilkod at 9:08 AM on November 22, 2004

Catalan: La meva àvia té un pollastre blau.
posted by Zootoon at 9:19 AM on November 22, 2004

Hindi: Meri nani/dadi ke pass ek neeli murgi hain.
Gujarati: Mari nani/dadi ni passe ek neeli kukdi che.

In both cases nani is maternal grandmother, and dadi is paternal grandmother.
posted by riffola at 9:19 AM on November 22, 2004

Thank you riffola. I was a terrible Hindi student.
posted by mds35 at 9:22 AM on November 22, 2004

French: Ma grand-mère a un poulet bleu.

Japanese: Uchi no obasan ni aoitori ga aru. (???????????????)

That japanese might be a bit iffy but will get the the point accross :)
posted by splice at 9:27 AM on November 22, 2004

Well, because of encoding issues, you won't get the actual japanese text and will have to make do with the romanization :) Sorry.
posted by splice at 9:29 AM on November 22, 2004

French: Ma grandmere a une poule bleu.
posted by RMALCOLM at 9:34 AM on November 22, 2004

Sorry to split hairs (or poultry), but in Finnish kukko means a rooster so it's better to say:

Mun mummolla on sininen kana. (spoken language)
Minun isoäidilläni on sininen kana. (written language)
posted by keijo at 9:46 AM on November 22, 2004

Dutch: Mijn oma heeft een blauwe kip.
posted by fvw at 9:49 AM on November 22, 2004

Thai: kun yai me kai see fa

(or something there about)
posted by icontemplate at 9:51 AM on November 22, 2004

Russian: U moey babushki est' sinii tsiplyonok.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 9:58 AM on November 22, 2004

English: My grandmother has a blue chicken.
posted by Jairus at 10:10 AM on November 22, 2004

Welsh: Mae gan fy mam-gu iar las.
Phonetically: my ghan vuh mam ghee yarrh lahss.

Condolences from Wales.
posted by nylon at 10:14 AM on November 22, 2004

Mid-Coast Maine, phonetically (cadence is slow and all vowels should be as velar as possible):

familiar: "My gram-MAWz got'a BLOO CHIK-en, bro. Christ JEE-sus."

(note: the last three elements are flavoring elements. Without them you will be understood, but as part of a broader conversation the statement will seem awkward without them.)

formal: "My gram-MA has a BLOO CHIK-en."

(follow this with intense eye contact to make the stranger as uncomfortable as possible.)
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:25 AM on November 22, 2004

spanish: mi abuela tiene una gallina azul.

i'm signing it in ASL, too, watch.
posted by plexiwatt at 10:25 AM on November 22, 2004

You guys are great. Thanks a bunch for your help. I may try to make this into a memorial picture that could be hung at his favorite cafe. That was where he usually collected and tested his translations. Does anybody know how to say this in Greek, Amharak, Scots Gaelic or Hebrew ?
posted by mds35 at 10:28 AM on November 22, 2004

Chinese: 我的奶奶有藍色的雞
Phonetically, in Mandarin: Wo de nai nai yo lan se de ji

Not a native speaker, so this could be a little off.
posted by steveminutillo at 10:30 AM on November 22, 2004

That didn't work. I should have been paying attention in those 8 million previous threads about how to get international characters to work here. Maybe I'm trying too hard:

?????????
posted by steveminutillo at 10:31 AM on November 22, 2004

rusty Latin: AVIA HABET CAERVLAM GALLINAM

I'm amazed I could do that.
posted by The White Hat at 11:05 AM on November 22, 2004

ack! Add "MEA" to that. Completely forgot the posessive.
posted by The White Hat at 11:12 AM on November 22, 2004

silly nitpick on RMALCOLM's entry
French v2: Ma grand-mère a une poule bleue.

"Ma grand-mère a un poulet bleu." works too but "poule" is female while "poulet" is male.
posted by mrgavins at 11:13 AM on November 22, 2004

Afrikaans (not my native tongue, but I spoke it as a Peace Corps Volunteer): My ouma het 'n blou hoender
posted by handful of rain at 11:24 AM on November 22, 2004

Hebrew, transliterated: Le-savta she-li yesh tar-neh-golet kchula.
posted by ori at 11:26 AM on November 22, 2004

For Japanese, "aoitori" should be "aoi niwatori", otherwise it's just a blue bird, not a blue chicken.
posted by Bugbread at 11:26 AM on November 22, 2004

Also, in Italian it's: la mia nonna ha un pollo blu.
posted by ori at 11:29 AM on November 22, 2004

Texan: Mah grayin mah got a buhloo cheekin.
posted by swift at 11:42 AM on November 22, 2004

Mandarin: Wo de tzu mu yo tze lan se de jee
Taiwanese (ish): Wa amah oo jia lam seh de gae
posted by casarkos at 12:02 PM on November 22, 2004

Farsi: maamaan bozorgam morgh-e aabi daarad.

aa = father
a = dad
o = the first o in bozo
r = flap, not glide
gh = voiced uvular fricative
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 12:14 PM on November 22, 2004

Russian: Y moyie babushke yest ceeneeya kooreetza
posted by jabberwock at 12:27 PM on November 22, 2004

Armenian: Metz mommes gahbooyd hauv oonee.
posted by drpynchon at 12:34 PM on November 22, 2004

Akan (spoken in Ghana): Me nana wor akukor blue.

Ga (spoken in Ghana): In mami mami yer woor blue.
posted by ramix at 12:54 PM on November 22, 2004

I'd translate it into Japanese:

obaasan no niwatori wa aoi desu.
(My grandmother's chicken is blue)

I'm only a student of Japanese. As far as native languages go, I offer Scouse:

me granma's gorra bloo chikkin, like
posted by corvine at 1:09 PM on November 22, 2004

In my unbelievably bad Classical Greek- Matromator exeis kuanoeidein alektorides.

And I would translate in Japanese as: Obaasan wa aoi niwatroi ga arimasu.
posted by MostHolyPorcine at 1:41 PM on November 22, 2004

uhm...forgot the possesive in both.

For Greek, it should be: Matromator mou...

It's not really necessary in Japanese, but: Watashi (or Ore, or Boku, or...) no Obaasan
posted by MostHolyPorcine at 1:44 PM on November 22, 2004

Indonesian: Kakekku punya ayam yang hijau (courtesy of my girlfriend)
posted by snez at 2:14 PM on November 22, 2004

Indonesian: Kakekku punya ayam yang hijau (courtesy of my girlfriend)
posted by snez at 2:14 PM PST on November 22

I think it's biru, not hijau which means green. :)
posted by christin at 2:24 PM on November 22, 2004

01001101011110010010000001100111011100100110000101101110011001000110110101101111
01110100011010000110010101110010001000000110100001100001011100110010000001100001
00100000011000100110110001110101011001010010000001100011011010000110100101100011
01101011011001010110111000101110
posted by aberrant at 2:44 PM on November 22, 2004

Modern Greek: E yaya mou exi mya ble kota.

[where the "x" in "exi" is a sort of slurred ch sound]

I just knew I had a reason for joining up today...
posted by googly at 3:17 PM on November 22, 2004

turkish:

maternal grandma:
Anneanemin mavi bir tavugu var.

paternal grandma:
Babaannemin mavi bir tavugu var.

If you're going to write it, the "g" has a tilde on it. If you're going to pronounce it, it goes something like this:

"onnai on nai min, mau ve, beer, ta voo(oo) var (the last part is like the shortcut word for variable).

hope this helps. Really sorry about your friend.
posted by karen at 6:22 PM on November 22, 2004

Lithuanian: Mano senele turi melina vista

[pronunciation: mah-no seh-neh-lay too-ry meh-lee-na vish-tah]
posted by seawallrunner at 8:22 PM on November 22, 2004

Malay ( as spoken in Malaysia ): Nenek saya ada ayam biru.

nenek = grandmother
saya = my
ada = have
ayam = chicken
biru = blue

Certain words in the Malay language are similar to Indonesian.
posted by kryptos at 9:26 PM on November 22, 2004

German: Meine Großmutter hat kein blaues Huhn, aber sie hat viele grüne Hähne!
posted by spaghetti at 9:27 PM on November 22, 2004

Sorry, cahlers posted in German already, so I changed it a bit...

My thoughts are with you.
posted by spaghetti at 9:32 PM on November 22, 2004

mds, you know who this is. You've gotten the Italian (although I think you might be able to say "azzuro" rather than "blu" if you really wanted, but not to knock the other translation at all, "blu" would be more standard).

You know the Texan already.

I'm sorry to hear about it, and that I didn't reply sooner.
posted by lackutrol at 12:16 AM on November 23, 2004

Kyrgyz: Menin chong apamdin gyok balapany bar.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:37 AM on November 23, 2004

Luxembourgish: Meng Groußmam huet e blott Hong.
posted by erdferkel at 3:40 AM on November 23, 2004

Australian: Me Nan's got a blue chook.
posted by Tarrama at 6:08 AM on November 23, 2004

Georgia : Grannies got this Yardbird, and, I sh** you not, that sumbich is blue
posted by Megafly at 6:34 AM on November 23, 2004

Japanese: sobo ga aoi niwatori o motteiru.

(Lit. "Grandma-Nom blue chicken-Acc possesses.")

I think it sounds better than the other translations.
posted by armage at 8:15 AM on November 23, 2004

Thanks to everyone for indulging me in this oddball tribute to my friend. Thanks also for the laughs. This has been good therapy. I hope I can return the favor to you Greeners over time.

Shout out to lackutrol: Look at me! I'm a member now. Cool beans, eh?
posted by mds35 at 9:16 AM on November 23, 2004

Kakek in the Indonesian translation rightly refers to grandfather. Nenek would refer to grandmother or grandfather.
posted by kryptos at 7:51 PM on November 23, 2004

Estonian: Mu vanaemal on sinisekana.
posted by penguin pie at 10:32 AM on November 26, 2004