The stone fell away from my heart

Welcome to another edition of Sound Czech - Radio Prague's Czech language series in which you can learn Czech idioms through song lyrics. Today we'll be listening to a song by the most famous of Czech crooners, Karel Gott. The song's title is "Srdce jako kámen", which translates as "Heart like a stone". Listen out for this phrase in the song's chorus.

Photo: CTK

English-speaking listeners will be familiar with the meaning of "srdce jako kámen". Its translation, "heart of stone", is frequently used in English too, and means the same thing. But a slightly more unusual Czech expression is "spadl mi kámen ze srdce" - literally, the stone fell away from my heart. I suppose an English equivalent would be something like "that's a weight off my shoulders" or "a weight off my mind". But that is not exactly right, because "spadl mi kámen ze srdce" doesn't mean that you are passing responsibility over onto someone else, but rather that something that was weighing heavy on you has been resolved. So really it's an expression of heartfelt relief.

Now that we've got that sorted, here's a little bit more Karel Gott.

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In "Spadl mi kámen ze srdce" Czechs refer to their heart where English speakers might idiomatically refer to their mind. As we said, the phrase more or less translates as "that's a weight off my mind". Likewise, Czechs say "nechtěl říct, co mu leží na srdci" or, "he didn't want to say what was lying on his heart", instead of "he didn't want to say what was weighing on his mind".

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The opposite of having a heart of stone, or "srdce jako kámen" is maybe "mít srdce na dlani", to have your heart on your palm. The English equivalent of "mít srdce na dlani" is, of course, to have your heart on you sleeve.

Which brings us to the end of this week's Sound Czech. So let me bid you a heartfelt goodbye! Na shledanou!