So we went to Finland for vacation (it was lovely there btw) and husband bought this T-shirt in a local thrift store. Can someone tell me what does it say? We tried Google translate, and it says “the pig always succeeds “. Is it the right translation? or is it some kind of national saying or idiom?
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“a pig will always be/do fine”
Some more info this is a character form the Finnish “Viivi and Wagner” comic strip. The main characters are a woman (Viivi) and the pig/swine (Wagner) she lives with. The conceit being that it’s a play on “men are swine”, but Wagner is literally a pig. Wagner lives up to just about any and all stereotypes of men in relationships, but whenever you want to call out his behaviour it sort always falls down on “well, he *is* a pig, whaddaya expect.
Also “sika” translates as “swine”. It’s kinda pertinent that just as in English pig is the nicer term of the two.
Yup the literal translation is correct, its a comic strip character who is a literal pig man. Like all men 😀
Also kind of like “pig always manages/does fine”. But the others are also correct, it’s just small nuances.
A pig will always manage
The Pig Abides
A pig will always manage.
It The corecct transalation
Swine always manages.
In addition to what others have said:
It’s a bit difficult to translate the verb pärjää since its more specific meaning is often affected by the situational context and tone of voice.
For example, when you declare enthusiastically “Matti pärjää hyvin!”, you’re essentially saying that Matti is doing really well (in something).
But if you sound more hesitant, and state in a more somber tone “no, kaipa mä pärjään” (“well, I guess I will manage”), you tend to be more focused on “doing well enough” than “doing exceptionally well”.
So “sika pärjää aina” could be seen either as a statement “when you’re a swine, you will always do well” or as “when you’re a swine, you will always manage somehow”.
The pig will always thrive.
Pig will always do fine, kind like “the dude abides” from the Big Lebowski.