A French idiom?

If you want somebody to stop talking rubbish and happen to lose your temper, you more often than not say “shut up”, don’t you? It is definitely not very polite since the phrase is offensive by nature but actually who of us has never come out with an expression like this? There are situations where tempers can flare!

I have another question. Have you ever told someone who got on your nerves that he/she lost an opportunity to shut up? I mean not just “shut up” but “you’ve lost the best opportunity to shut up”? I first heard this sentence a few years ago when President Jacques Chirac of France addressed my beloved country with it. “Poland has lost the best opportunity to shut up!” said he and we all squealed with indignation, because it seemed to put an end to the long centuries of the Polish-French friendship (meaning the long history of Poles’ admiration for everything the French made up, including French cuisine, French wine, the French language, French generals and emperors). And all of a sudden, in 2003 we got a slap over the face from the president of our beloved France. His phrase “La Pologne a perdu une bonne occasion de se taire” referred to our support for the American intervention in Iraq, which was followed by our troops actively involved in the war. The public opinion on the war was split but it is us who are entitled to criticize decisions of our Government and the Government itself for its very existence alone, but a foreigner? Like Cyrano de Bergerac we could have said: 

 

You would not have been let to utter one--
Nay, not the half or quarter of such jest!
I take them from myself all in good part,
But not from any other man that breathes! 

Chirac's words sounded all the more harsh in our ears that were uttered by the head of our historic ally.

To many of us the very phrase sounded simply rude! We are not angels and there are plenty of rude expressions in the Polish language. However, when in public hardly any politician would use any of them. Well, journalists love catching politicians at uttering dirty words or abuse off the record which strangely enough suddenly becomes on the record, just to show how ill-mannered our leaders can be. Journalists seem to love showing us the guys renowned for their class and immaculate manners losing their temper and dignity. Nevertheless, no politician would consciously use certain phrases in front of the cameras. So far it has been rather out of the question.

In this respect French politicians, presidents, to be precise, appear to be arrogant boors who feel entitled to neglect some basic principles of diplomacy, not to mention rules of good behaviour. President Nicholas Sarkozy telling Prime Minister David Cameron that the latter “lost a good opportunity to shut up” seems to repeat Jacques Chirac’s words addressed to Poland. I have no intention to assess Sarkozy’s right to his rage and its blunt expression. He may be even right being annoyed by Cameron’s lectures on the euro while Britain remains outside the euro zone. I do not simply know. The fact is that the phrase was used once again by a French president.

In my opinion “losing a good opportunity to shut up” may become a popular saying all over the world because it is very easy to translate into other languages with its internal sarcasm intact. Normally we talk about losing an opportunity to have a say and to gain something. Remaining silent when everybody around discusses important matters raises rather negative connotations which results from exact “losing an opportunity”. Consequently, losing an opportunity to do nothing sounds absurd, which adds some extra pinch of sarcasm to the plain “Shut up!”

All in all, now I will associate  the phrase “to lose a good opportunity to shut up” with France and call it, perhaps not very precisely, a French idiom. Idioms are usually difficult to translate literally into another language. This “presidential” saying is not. We are able to translate the whole phrase word for word and it is still perfectly understandable. However, had you not heard this expression from the president of France, would it ever come across your mind to use such a collocation (“opportunity” and “shut up”)? Not in Polish, I think. What about English? If you have ever heard a native speaker of English saying about losing an opportunity to shut up, please, let me know!

Is it a French contribution into the world’s linguistic heritage?