"Thunder upon you, my love"
Welcome to SoundCzech - Radio Prague's Czech language series in which you can learn useful phrases through song lyrics. Today's song is by a well known Czech singer - Eva Pilarova and it is called "Thunder upon you, my love".
And yes, today's phrase is the name of the song itself. "Hrom aby do tě lásko vjel" which literally translates as "May thunder strike, you my love" - or - which makes slightly more sense "Thunder upon you, my love". It is a phrase we all want to use once in a while - when we are not happy with a state of affairs. "Hrom do toho" - or "thunder upon this" is something akin to the old English saying "a pox on you"! And you can say it about anything at all - something that is proving hard to fix, a situation you are not happy with - or as in the case of the singer here - a man who has gone and left you unexpectedly. So let's listen to the phrase again:
"Hrom aby do tě lásko už, hrom aby do tě lásko už, hrom aby do tě lásko už prásk" - a bit of repetition there "May thunder strike you my love. I had a man one day, the next he'd gone away..." Eva Pilarova sings. And doubtless there are plenty of women out there who at some point in their lives have made good use of this phrase. Another way you can put it is "K čertu s tebou, lásko" - or " Jdi k čertu" in other words "Go to the devil, my love". That latter phrase I am sure exists in most languages. But let us go back to the original phrase:
You are probably wondering why it is not lightening that should strike down - and I am afraid I don't have a simple answer for you. Possibly our forefathers -who coined the phrase - thought that thunder was more impressive than lightening. In any case it is used to this day. There is a phrase that includes both thunder and lightening. "Lítaly hromy a blesky" means "Thunder and lightening came down" and it can be used to describe a huge conflict. Well, I certainly hope you have as few of those situations as possible in the coming year. Best wishes for a Happy New Year - and until next time - nashledanou!
