kaewmala

Is it not a fact that จับปลาสองมือ can not be translated directly? you can shift the words into English for those that need it, then may as well forget them.

The definition in the RID shows ก. หมายจะเอาให้ได้ทั้ง ๒ อย่าง Intend to get two things? I don't know how to translate it. เสี่ยงทำการ ๒ อย่างพร้อมๆกัน ซึ่งอาจไม่สำเร็จทั้ง ๒ อย่าง which we already know.

[snip]

So, take จับปลาสองมือ, for example. Understanding the literal English teaches you nothing about what the expression means because there are no situational or contextual clues. Only if you know how it is used (in what situations) and how people typically react to it (positively, negatively, humorously etc) do you get a feel for its real meaning. You then draw the analogy with an appropriate English expression (one with the same contextual use and social responses) and that, in so far as there is one, is the "correct" translation, regardless of the literal translation.

Another example recently occurred in the 'Thais Don't have a word for...' thread, where I mentioned that the idiom อย่าขุ่มเขาโคขืนให้กินหญ้า is an exact fit for 'You can lead the horse to water, but you can't make it drink'. However, if you read it literally, the semantic connotation is easily lost or overlooked.

Oh, dear. I seem to have gone into a bit of a meta-linguistic spiel - apologies to the bored!

Softwater

Some idioms and proverbs have direct equivalents (not necessarily literal translation) in another language. I translated จับปลาสองมือ as "Cat two fish in each hand". And I agree that the closest approximation of that idiom in English is "To have a cake and eat it too". Often used in relationship context (i.e. having a relationship with two persons at the same time) is to catch two fish, one in each hand. A risky business - risking losing both.

As for the second idiom ข่มเขาโคขืนให้กินหญ้า, I translated it to: "Force the cow by the horns to eat grass", meaning, [parents] forcing a son or daughter to marry someone s/he doesn't fancy.

Both expressions are often used in the negative, with the prefix อย่า.

I've often seen น้ำผึ้งหยอดเดียว in Thai newspapers meaning a trivial or small incident which escalates into something big and for a long while I wondered, why honey?

Well, thanks to Thongbai Thongpao, the well known lawyer, for his column in today's Bangkok Post explaining is as a drop of honey on a street attracts flies which in turn draws a cat to chase them, a dog joins in chasing the cat, the owner of the cat gets out a stick to hit the dog. The dog's owner then gets a weapon to stop the cat owner, friends of both sides then join in......

Is it an Aesop story or where does it come from?

Anyway, thank you Thongbai.

The expression is actually น้ำผึ้งหยดเดียว (lit. "one drop of honey"). In other words, it's หยด ("drop", n.), and not หยอด ("to drop", v.).