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I was never able to make any sense out of the following Japanese proverbs or idiomatic expressions:

豆腐の角に頭をぶつけて死んでしまえ。
'Hit your head against a corner of a cake of tofu, and die.'

...の爪の垢を煎じて飲む。
'take extract from one's dirt/wax under the nail, and drink it'

They are nonsense to me, and the latter is also disgusting. How can you die in such a way? What is the purpose of drinking such thing? How can you make a sense out of them?

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  • Maybe, the first one is saying you have a soft head. The second one might be like saying "eat s**t" in English... – silvermaple Dec 14 '11 at 00:40
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    The first reminds me of things along the lines of "could drown in a puddle"/"could trip over his own shadow" in English – nkjt Dec 14 '11 at 15:17
  • The first one is from rakugo, which sometimes spout out nonsense. – syockit Dec 31 '11 at 14:49

1 Answers1

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豆腐の角に頭をぶつけて死んでしまえ。

Used to say that a person is so stupid (that he would believe this and real find a piece tofu to die). (source)

...の爪の垢を煎じて飲む。

Use the dirt under the nail of ( some expertise ) as a drug, (you'll get some of his talent). (source)

名人の爪の垢を煎じて飲めば少しは腕が上がるだろうに

It'll be hard to make any sense out of them if you see them alone. I'd recommend you to find some reference.

Louis Waweru
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fefe
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  • +1 for nice explanation. Can you please quote some source where I can get Japanese proverbs/idioms/phrases with a good English explanation. – Mudassir Dec 15 '11 at 12:33
  • @Mudassir I haven't come across one yet ... – fefe Dec 15 '11 at 12:44
  • @Mudassir What about a reference like this: http://www.languagerealm.com/japanese/japaneseproverbs.php ? It's not as complete as a book would be... but, there are at least a few proverbs (with their explanations,) listed. – summea Feb 29 '12 at 00:47
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    @summea: Thats really nice. Thanks for sharing. – Mudassir Feb 29 '12 at 03:55