Alison MacG Apr 30, 2012:

@ Edith To me, the expression “to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” is more about being creative, talented or clever enough to accomplish great things with inferior materials, i.e. making the best of a bad situation rather than claiming to be able to perform miracles. In addition, the idiom is much more well known in the negative, i.e. “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”, which could also cause confusion here.
This question incidentally reminded me of a saying I came across only a few weeks ago: “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but you can make a pig’s ear out of anything”

Edith Kelly Apr 30, 2012:

Armorel I cannot send you a reply, won't work. So this way: I think you are taking the saying a bit too literal. This is also used figuratively.

Edith Kelly Apr 30, 2012:

Charles like a stork on stubbles: That one walks like a stork on stubbles. But this is not Spanish.

Charles Davis Apr 30, 2012:

@Edith Either would do, I think. This saying has the advantage of being very familiar, but "herring into sherbet" has a charmingly surreal touch. Spanish is very good at expressions for incongruity: like an octopus in a garage ("como un pulpo en un garaje"), like a pig in braces ("como un cerdo con tirantes") or "like a green dog" ("como un perro verde"), for example. But this is not quite the same thing.

Edith Kelly Apr 30, 2012:

Charles thanks. I am sure you are right. Thinking a bit harder, I would also say: making a silk purse *out of* a sow's ear

Charles Davis Apr 30, 2012:

silk purse out of a sow's ear I hope Edith will not mind if I correct her statement this this expression is Irish. It is first attested in 1579, in a story called Ephemerides of Phialo by the English clergyman Stephen Gosson, in relation to hopeless tasks:

"Seekinge too make a silke purse of a Sowes eare."

Before that, the Anglo-Scottish poet Alexander Barclay had included a similar expression in his Eclogues (1514):

"None can [...] make goodly silke of a gotes flece"

This is from the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs.

I think this saying is familiar in the US. There's a Linda Ronstadt album called "Silk Purse", with a photo of Linda on the cover surrounded by pigs (or sows?). And here, for example, it is used in an American press article:

"Mitt Romney Makes a Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerryweissman/2012/02/28/mitt-ro...

Arabic & More (asker) Apr 30, 2012:

Thank you, Catharine. The text talks about some members of a political party who are conniving and dishonest. They act like they can do anything (the impossible) and make false promises to the constituents. It is very informal language - basically stuff you would find on an Internet discussion forum.

Catharine Cellier-Smart Apr 30, 2012:

@Amel more information about the type of document you're translating would be helpful, in order to get the correct register in our suggestions i.e. type of public; formal, informal etc