水仙不开花——装蒜
What does 水仙不开花——装蒜 mean?

When I look it up online, I can only find "the daffodils don’t blossom—playing dumb", which doesn't seem to make any sense? What kind of a situation would I use this in?

Question

水仙不开花——装蒜
What does 水仙不开花——装蒜 mean?

When I look it up online, I can only find "the daffodils don’t blossom—playing dumb", which doesn't seem to make any sense? What kind of a situation would I use this in?

Answer

装蒜 means：if you know something, but you pretend do not know something.
水仙花与蒜这两个植物稍微有点像，不开花时更加像一点。是一句歇后语。

Answer

这句歇后语我是头一次听。。。

Answer

playing dumb直译还有一个意思就是pretending to be garlic，因为未开花的水仙长的像蒜，所以这么说

Answer

'你不要给我装祘' means 'Don't pretend you don't know.'

水仙不开花 --装祘。 A daffodil that has not flowered is pretending to be garlic. (attired as garlic)

Have a look here: https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/164672678.html for the origin of  this phrase.

Answer

歇后语肯定不能这样直译，应该说歇后语接近“不以译”部分，是汉语独有的语言现象吧。

猪鼻子插大葱——装象（相）。

直译的再准确，也没有用，因为“装象”其实是“装相”，如果你直译成“playing an elephant"就错了，而你又怎么译”装相“呢？如果意义为”装相“，那它和”猪鼻子插大葱“又有什么关系呢？所以很难译，有加上许多的解释。而歇后语基本上都是用谐音之类一语双关的办法。

比如上面的”装蒜“，其实不是playing dumb的意思，而是”不懂装懂“，”装模作样“的意思，如果直接这样译，又和前面的”水仙不开花“毫无关系了。