¡TIERRA, TRÁGAME!

 

When we make an embarrassing blunder, a faux pas, an indiscretion, or put our foot in it, we might use expressions like let me die, I wanted to crawl under the carpet, I wanted the earth to swallow me or I wanted to curl up and die, all of which describe our mindset of shame, embarrassment, uneasiness, or discomfort. Naturally, those feelings in English can also be expressed in Spanish: Tierra, trágame or its variant que se me trague la tierra, as illustrated by the Colombian Santiago Gamboa (Páginas de vuelta, 1998):  “… lo mira fijo y él piensa trágame tierra…” Human feelings and mindsets are universal and can be expressed in all languages, albeit in different ways. Languages don’t just name the same emotions differently—they stage them differently.