non se collen troitas coas bragas enxoitas

Galician

Alternative forms

  • non se pescan troitas con bragas enxoitas

Etymology

Literally, “you can't fish trouts with dry pants”.

Proverb

non se collen troitas coas bragas enxoitas

  1. (idiomatic) no pain, no gain
    • 1884, O tío Marcos da Portela, number II, 44, page 2:
      —Non se presenta mal a cousa— dirían os herdeiros prás súas faltriqueiras. Mais o demo qu'as urde, ou as cousas que veñen mal, ou por aquelo de que en tóda-las partes hai un anaco de mal camiño, ou porque non sempre corre o ouro pró tesouro, ou porque non se collen troitas coas bragas enxoitas, ou porque os mortos non falan, ou porque chegar i encher non pode ser, ou porque cousa de moitos cóme-na os lobos, fose polo que quixese, o conto foi que dempois d'andar remexendo tódo-los trastes, dempois do promeiro achazgo, non apareceran como restos e reliquias do tesouro máis que tres marianas esmorecidas e malencónicas
      "A promising beginning!" said the heirs to their moneybags. But either because the devil is a schemer, or because one must deal with a bad hand, or either because in every country dogs bite, or because not always the gold runs into the treasure, or either because he that would have eggs must endure the cackling of hens, or because dead men tell no tale, or because there is not such a thing as effortlessly profit, or because the common horse is worst shod, whichever way it was, the story was that after rummaging through all the junk, after the first finding, they found no more rests or remnants of treasure beyond three old pennies, withered and melancholic.

References

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