Don't become disheartened
Hello, it's time again to learn a new Czech idiom with the help of a song. Today's tune originally comes from a 1980 television fairy tale "Princove jsou na draka" or "Princes are no good" (there's another Czech idiom for you). It is full of catchy songs that are extremely popular with children to this day. One of them is "Statistika nuda je" or "Statistics is boring". The phrase we'll be paying special attention to is "neklesejte na mysli".
The boy who originally sings the song in the fairy tale pretends to be a sorcerer capable of solving problems through such "magical" methods as statistics. "Statistika nuda je, má však cenné údaje" - Statistics is boring but it yields valuable data" the singer says and adds: "Neklesejte na mysli, ona nám to vyčíslí". "Don't become disheartened, statistics will calculate it for us." The original idiom is "Klesat na mysli" - literally "to sink in one's mind". The imperative "Neklesejte na mysli" means "Don't become disheartened, don't despair".
If your spirits sink, a friend can tell you "Neklesej na mysli". If you were talking to more than one person, you would need to use the plural "Neklesejte na mysli". The same applies if you address someone who you don't know well, who's older or higher in status. You would need to use the polite plural "Neklesejte na mysli". Listen once again and then we'll get back to the word "mysl" or mind.
The Czech word "mysl" or "mind" is related to the verb "myslet" - "to think". "What do you have in mind?" would be "Co máš na mysli?" A Czech saying "Veselá mysl, pů;l zdraví" means "a happy mind is one half of health". The other half is probably cleanliness, judging from another Czech saying "Čistota půl zdraví" - "cleanliness is one half of health". And that's all for today. If you think that's too much for one lesson "neklesejte na mysli" - you can always go over it again on Radio Prague's website www.radio.cz/english. Na shledanou.
