Spanish to English translations [PRO] Folklore / proverbs, sayings
Spanish term or phrase:caballo grande, ande o no ande
Talking about hollow boasts about the success of a trade fair, which was actually a massive disaster.
Evidentemente nadie quiere “caballo grande, ande o no ande”, pero tampoco “caballo escuálido que no monte jinete”.
Is there a proverb with a similar meaning in English? I can't think of any. They have obviously made up the second part, which means I will have to follow up on the theme in the first bit.
MJ Barber (asker): 2:02pm Dec 6, 2004: hiya Neilmac - yes I thought about white elephant too, - but I don't know how to run that into the second part. The concept is that the owner of the "caballo grande" boasts about it, even thought it may be lame. In this case, the fair organisers say that it is not important how many visitors the fair gets, but rather the quality of the deals done there. My text says that this is nonsense.
a lame duck, a loss leader... a white elephant -> an elephant that not even Hannibal could mount
Explanation: I don't exactly follow your comment above, MJ, but here are some ideas.
a lame duck - (UNSUCCESSFUL) noun [C]
an unsuccessful person or thing
There is also another meaning in the US for 'lame duck', according to www.dictionary.com:
Entry: lame duck
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: elected official waiting to leave office
Synonyms: crumbling power, holdover, incumbent, loser, weak administration, weakling
Loss leader:
loss leader
n.
A commodity [product] offered especially by a retail store at cost or below cost to attract customers.
Finally, on the white elephant theme, if you choose to use this term, you could append something like, "an elephant that not even Hannibal could mount" for the, "caballo escuálido que no monte jinete" to balance the expressions.
Explanation: I have heard this a lot but have never sensed any "white elephant" idea. I believe it just means that the person in question is obsessed with size, regardless of other features
The translation workplace 
