Never heard of it actually (and I both am Italian and have a passion for proverbs), but it would be something along the lines of "Chi inizia molto termina poco".
i'm italian too, and i never heard such a proverb too :) there are many similar sentences though in the sense of "trying to achieve too much", but are not exactly proverbs: salvare capra e cavoli (to save goat and cabbages... it comes from a kind of joke in hich a farmer has to cross a river on a boat with a goat and cabbages but the boat is too small and only two of them per time can get in) volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca (to want a full barrel and a drunk wife... with obviuos meaning :p)
right now i found this on wikiquote (http://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cominciare) "Chi troppo comincia, poco finisce." that's the exact translation you asked for, only i never heard of it out of wikiquote -_-
I am not this is an italian proverb... and I never heard it as a proverb.
ReplyDeleteBut the sentence and its mean remember me something.
In italian should be:
"Chi comincia tante cose, ne finisce poche"
Sorry for my english... I am italian :P
Never heard of it actually (and I both am Italian and have a passion for proverbs), but it would be something along the lines of "Chi inizia molto termina poco".
ReplyDeleteSorry for the double post... but I forgot a "sure" between "I am" and "not" :D
ReplyDelete"Chi troppo vuole nulla stringe": One who wants too much holds on to nothing.
ReplyDeletePortuguese: "Quem muito burro toca, algum deixa para trás."
ReplyDeleteEnglish (close): He who keeps many donkeys, leaves some behind.
Really hard to translate well to english :)
My response to that is: he who does few things accomplishes few things!
ReplyDeleteHere is a russian one:
Russian: Ne Mojna sedets na dva stulya c'adin popam
English: You can't sit on two chairs with one butt.
Then, here is the Spanish sentence:
ReplyDeleteQuien mucho abarca, poco aprieta
He who embrace a lot, tight a litte
Kau yang memulai, kau yang mengakhiri
ReplyDeleteKau yang berjanji, kau yang mengingkari
Rhoma Irama, Kegagalan Cinta
nggak mirip bener, kena2 dikit lahh...
:D
i'm italian too, and i never heard such a proverb too :)
ReplyDeletethere are many similar sentences though in the sense of "trying to achieve too much", but are not exactly proverbs:
salvare capra e cavoli (to save goat and cabbages... it comes from a kind of joke in hich a farmer has to cross a river on a boat with a goat and cabbages but the boat is too small and only two of them per time can get in)
volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca (to want a full barrel and a drunk wife... with obviuos meaning :p)
right now i found this on wikiquote (http://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cominciare)
"Chi troppo comincia, poco finisce."
that's the exact translation you asked for, only i never heard of it out of wikiquote -_-
To all of you, thanks a lot!
ReplyDelete