help with Ukrainian saying

[George Hawrysch]

> for "v ogorode buzina, a v Kieve dyad'ka," Lubensky
> gives: "[saying] there is no logical connection between
> the various things s.o. is saying: ~ you're mixing
> apples and oranges."

The "no logical connection" is accurate; the suggested
English equivalent is not.

Maybe the problem is understanding the English. The whole
point of the expression "apples and oranges" is that they
ARE like one another -- both are fruit, similar in shape
and size, some languages use very similar words for both
-- while at the same time they are NOT like one another.
The phrase means, "Don't mistake similar for identical"
in English.

"V ogorode..." doesn't refer to similar things, it points
out that two things have nothing in common at all. The
phrase means, "...pri chom zdes'...?" in Russian.

If I say, "Microsoft should be broken up because AT&T was
broken up to good effect" -- that's "Apples and oranges."

If I say "Microsoft should be broken up because the sky
is blue" -- that's "Na horodi..."

George Hawrysch

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