The Grim Toother
Welcome to another edition of SoundCzech. In today’s edition we’ll be hearing a song called called Zubatá by the legendary Czech band Pražský výběr. The root of the word Zubatá is zub, which means tooth. Zubatá, could be loosely translated as ‘Ol’ Toothy’ or the ‘Grim Toother’, referring to the Grim Reaper and his unflinching skeletal grin. One difference is that in Czech, Death is female.
The imaginary protagonist referred to in the song is of course as doomed as Max Von Sydow’s knight in The Seventh Seal. That’s not to say one shouldn’t try and hang on zuby nehty (tooth & nail). If you fight zuby nehty you’ve got your claws and teeth sunk in deep and can’t easily be shaken off. A recent headline in the paper, for example, read: zima se drží zuby nehty– the winter is hanging on tooth and nail. It refuses to let go, even if spring should have started weeks ago.
Someone fed up with a situation could be described as having “full teeth” – ma toho plné zuby meaning he or she have had it up to here. Mám toho plné zuby– I’ve had enough, it’s time to try something new. Sometimes you have no choice: musíš zatnout zuby– you have to clench or grit your teeth and accept a difficult situation. Don’t like your job? Zatni zuby.
On a different note, sometimes you hear about bad guys being caught “armed to the teeth”; in Czech you would say je po zuby ozbrojen. Think Neo when he says he needs more guns in The Matrix.
Meanwhile, others enjoying the basic pleasures in life, good food, for example, might say dal bych si neco na zub– literally I’d have something for my tooth meaning I’d like something good to eat. Enjoy it while you can. No one is longer in the tooth than ol’ Zubatá and one thing about her: she’s always bloody hungry.
