Following our conversation about the dismissive phrase, Not my circus, not my monkeys, Nelly, who is a professor of French and Russian in Marquette, Michigan, shares a handy Russian saying that translates as “the circus left, the clowns remain.” For the Russian version, check out these sweatshirts. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Circus Left. The Clowns Remain.”
We talked not long ago about the expression, not my circus, not my monkeys.
Meaning, it’s not my problem, I’m not involved.
Yes, and that prompted an email from Nellie Cooper, who’s a professor of French and Russian at Northern Michigan University in Marquette.
And Nelly says that there is an expression in Russian that I just love.
It translates as, the circus left, the clowns remain.
Oh, that’s good.
How often has that happened?
And I Google that, and in fact, you can buy T-shirts with that saying in Russian, the circus left, the clowns remain.
Oh, it just reminded me of being in college where a friend comes over, brings some friends you don’t know, and you’re like in the kitchen preparing stuff.
And you come back in the living room and your friend is gone, but their dumb friends that you don’t know are still there.
You’re like, this is all they did.
They came by just to dump off their dumb friends.
Oh, well, we know there are expressions like this in your language.
Let us know.
877-929-9673 or whatever language you speak.
Try us out.
Words at waywordradio.org.
