28. SÓ O PÓ DA RABIOLA

This one is really appropriate for today! This week was exhausting! I’m absolutely destroyed, in a deplorable condition. Or, as a Brazilian would say: I’m “só o pó da rabiola”. The literal translation being “I’m just the powder of the kite’s tail”.

Apparently the dust (pó) on the expression was a confusion with the stick (pau) of the kite. Whenever the kite was so used that it was ripped in pieces, the only remaining part would be the frame, made with sticks. That makes more sense than dust, since I’ve never seen a kite with dust, but as we learned before, we don’t care much about sense when it comes to idiomatic sayings.

Ignoring the dust/stick conundrum, the expression consolidated and spread, developing an infinity of other variations and derivations from it. Here come some:

• “Só o pó” (Just the dust): They shortened it to the bare minimum, and it makes sense if you think that something is destroyed to the ground will leave only dust behind.

• “Só o bagaço (da laranja)” [Just the bagasse (of the orange)]: That makes a bit of sense too, one’s just what’s left of the fruit.

• “Só a capa da gaita” (Just the harmonica’s cover): I just… don’t know what to say.

• “Só a capa do Batman” (Just the Batman’s cape): I don’t know what happened here, I’m sure Alfred kept Batman’s cape pretty neat. It seems like they just added the first gibberish they could think. And it worked! I love the sound of this one.

• And so many other variations, that I think at some point people just started throwing random words like those “what’s your stripper name” generators. They go from “I’m just the dehydrated veggies of the Cup Noodles” to “I’m just the cockatoo topknot”. Again, I don’t know, can’t tell anymore.

It doesn’t matter which expression you choose to encapsulate your tiredness, it’s nothing a nice hot bath (or cold shower here at the tropics) won’t solve.

That’s what I’ll do as soon as I get home to be ready for one more day of this project.

Till tomorrow,

expressionada.