As blind as a cartridge

Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language programme in which you can learn a new Czech idiom or two through song. Today we’ll be listening to Czech household favourite Lucie Bílá sing rock’n’roll, in the form of a tune called ‘Amor Magor’ (more or less ‘Idiot Love’). The phrase to listen out for comes near the end and goes by in a flash – so listen hard. It is ‘je asi slepý jako patrona’

‘Být slepý jako patrona’ means literally ‘to be as blind as a cartridge’, and of course, more figuratively, to be very short-sighted indeed, or ‘to be as blind as a bat’. In ‘Amor Magor’, Lucie Bílá is peeved that Cupid is ‘slepý jako patrona’ and that his arrow ‘netrefil by se ani do slona’– ‘wouldn’t even hit an elephant’.

‘As blind as a cartridge’ might sound rather weird an analogy at first, but, I have been informed, there is reason behind this oddness. A ‘slepá patrona’ (‘blind cartridge’) is a cartridge for a gun without a bullet in it – in other words, a blank. So, ‘slepá patrona’ is a fixed phrase in the Czech language and ‘slepý jako patrona’ could also be translated, therefore, as ‘as blind as a blank’. Have another listen:

‘Slepý’ is the word for ‘blind’ in Czech, but it also has some further connotations. ‘Slepá ulička’ is the Czech for a ‘dead end street’ – or ‘blind alley’ come to think of it. And, regular listeners of SoundCzech will already know that ‘být na slepé koleji’ means literally ‘to be on the blind track’, but more idiomatically ‘to be on the wrong track’. So applying the adjective ‘slepý’ to something also suggests that that thing is leading nowhere. That is probably why a ‘slepá patrona’, or ‘blind cartridge’ is so-called. Here’s Lucie Bílá again, lamenting Cupid’s blindness and his firing of blanks:

And one last blinding insight before I go. It’s not perhaps one of the first parts of the body that you would necessarily need to know in Czech – but it could come in handy nonetheless. Your appendix, in Czech, is known as ‘slepé střevo’ which translates all-too-pictorially as your ‘blind gut’ or ‘blind intestine’. This is because, apparently, your appendix doesn’t lead anywhere.

But I hope this SoundCzech has lead you through a series of Czech idioms and phrases arising out of the word ‘slepý’. And on that note, I’ll bid you nashledanou!