The shelf / Understanding / Chinese
CHINESE
天书 (tiānshū)
“A book from heaven.”
MEANS
Impossible to understand.
Who started it?
Every language blames another one. The English blame the Greeks, the Greeks blame the Chinese, and the Chinese look up at the sky.
Source: CC-CEDICT dictionaries, Language Log.
On the label: It's all Greek to me
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The film: “It started with the Greeks. It got out of hand”
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The same idea, elsewhere
From “It's all Greek to me” to Chinese.
ENGLISHIt's all Greek to me.The one you know.Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1599.
GREEKΑυτά μου φαίνονται κινέζικα.“This looks like Chinese to me.”Everyday use (Wikipedia, alfavita.gr). No dictionary found.
GERMANDas sind böhmische Dörfer für mich.“Those are Bohemian villages to me.”Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch.
CZECHTo je pro mě španělská vesnice.“That's a Spanish village to me.”Masaryk University, Language Log.
SPANISHMe suena a chino.“It sounds like Chinese to me.”RAE.
CHINESE天书“A book from heaven.”CC-CEDICT dictionaries, Language Log.