No tip-toeing around the issue
Welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, our series where you can learn Czech expressions through song lyrics. Today we feature the expression chodit po špičkách, which translates as walking on one's toes or tippy toes.
Já budu chodit po špičkách
snad tě tím nevzbudím
až slunce vyjde v tmách
polibkem tě probudím.
I will tiptoe around
hopefully not wake you up
when the sun rises out of the dark
with a kiss I will wake you.
The mood is romantic: in the Rebelové video, the protagonist rocks cute Zuzana Norisová to sleep in a hammock.
Of course, Czech has a slew of expressions using the word chodit that are not quite... as sweet.
Chodit jako mátoha means to walk around like a zombie; also you could also label someone who looks worn out or dead tired a chodící mrtvola - a walking corpse. Someone a little dazed & confused could be described chodí jako bezhlaví... he's walking around as if he were headless. Might be useful to learn if you’re getting ready to see World War Z.
Chodit jako šupák means to walk around dressed like a scarecrow or looking like a stumblebum, and jako vandrák like a vagabond. Kiss, anyone? No thanks, this is no Norisová asleep in a hammock!
In terms of walking, one might also consider the dreamer, the fool in the Tarot deck looking blissfully at the heavens as he almost walks off a cliff: chodí ve snách he walks in dreams, in other words, his head is in the clouds. Let's not tiptoe around the subject.
If you have had enough of something and you need to get out, chodíš jako lev v kleci you pace back and forth like a caged lion.
I will tiptoe around
hopefully not wake you up
when the sun rises out of the dark
with a kiss I will wake you.
Someone less in love might not be quite so faithful: chodí na zálety– he goes philandering or skirt-chasing. Others are less adventurous and just regularly go out for beer. Tiptoe in at three in the morning? Yeah, right, wives and girlfriends complain: more like barge in drunk and wake everyone up!
