echar margaritas a puercos

English translation: to throw pearls to swine or cast pearls before swine

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Spanish term or phrase:	echar margaritas a puercos
English translation:	to throw pearls to swine or cast pearls before swine
Entered by:	Giovanni Rengifo

21:38 May 14, 2012

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings

Spanish term or phrase: echar margaritas a puercos

I can't think of an English equivalent of this expression that makes to waste something precious on people who cannot appreciate it. It is from a text from Argentina written in the 1920s:

Cuando por curiosidad ha caído en nuestras manos una de esas ediciones, nos hemos encontrado con la consabida anécdota de conventillo, ya clásica, relatada en una jerga abominablemente ramplona, plagada de italianismos, cosa que provocaba en nosotros mas risa que indignación pues la existencia de tales engendros se justifica de sobra por el público a que están destinados: no hay que echar margaritas a puercos,

Thanks

Wendy Gosselin KudoZ activity Questions: 2014 (6 open) (214 closed without grading) Answers: 2 Argentina
Local time: 12:32

to throw pearls to swine

Explanation:
This is the version I'm familiar with.

Selected response from:

Giovanni Rengifo
Colombia
Local time: 10:32

Grading comment

thanks
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +14

to cast/swam pearls before swine

Jorim De Clercq

to throw pearls to swine

Giovanni Rengifo

Answers

6 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +14

to cast/swam pearls before swine

Explanation:
You can find the explanation in the next link

Reference: http://diccionario.reverso.net/espanol-ingles/margarita

Jorim De Clercq
Ecuador
Local time: 10:32
Native speaker of:

Dutch,

Flemish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Patricia ONeill

1 min

agree

Michael de los Reyes: Biblical idiom (Book of Proverbs, I believe) so it's pretty widespread in its various forms.

23 mins

agree

Remy Arce

31 mins

agree

Esperanza González

39 mins

agree

Ana Maria Edlin

42 mins

agree

JH Trads

54 mins

agree

Michele Fauble

2 hrs

agree

Christine Walsh: I don't get "swam", but I suppose it's a typo or something you forgot to erase

2 hrs

agree

Rosa Paredes

2 hrs

agree

Linda Grabner: definitely "cast"

4 hrs

agree

Charles Davis: With Christine; "swam" is out of place. It's nearly always quoted as "cast pearls before swine", as in the traditional King James version: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine" (Mat. 7:6).

8 hrs

agree

Jenni Lukac (X): cast

9 hrs

agree

Carol Gullidge: cast, not swam

10 hrs

agree

Jim Tucker (X)

13 hrs

1 hr confidence:

to throw pearls to swine

Explanation:
This is the version I'm familiar with.

Giovanni Rengifo
Colombia
Local time: 10:32
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 56

Grading comment

thanks

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echar margaritas a puercos

English translation: to throw pearls to swine or cast pearls before swine

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echar margaritas a puercos

English translation: to throw pearls to swine or cast pearls before swine

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