¡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. L anguages don’t just name the same emotions differently—they stage them differently.
