Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos. (criar + cuervo)

D

deltor

Senior Member
Barcelona
Spanish
What is the equivalent of the Spanish saying: "Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos"?

The meaning is this:

It means that if you are raising children, then it can happen sometimes that those children will give you the cold shoulder once they're grown up. In general, it means that favors made to ungrateful persons will always be time lost.

I hope I can convey the meaning accurately
 
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    • I think it would be helpful if you explain the meaning for English-speakers.

    Alternate version:

    "Cría cuervos...y tendrás muchos"
     
    "Cria cuervos y te sacarán los ojos" means something similar to "if you are feeding a 'monster' he will end up eating you" or "if you let someone to be heartless with anyone else he will attack you anytime soon".

    I'm trying to find out if there is an American or British idiom which has the same meaning.Can somebody help me? :)

    Thanks
     
    ¡Buena pregunta! Constituye un verdad tan básico que debería ser algún refrán que incorpora la misma lección.

    El más parecido que me occure sería:

    If you play with with fire, you'll get burned.

    ¿Hay otras sugestiones?
     
    Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos.

    Raise crows and they'll peck your eyes out. (It's kind of like those damn birds bite the hand that feeds them. But the idea is that you can't trust untrustworthy people/things/animals.)
     
    Traducción literal:

    Raise crows and they´ll tear your eyes out.

    No me ocurre ningún equivalente en inglés. Tal vez: don´t bite the hand that feeds you: no muerdas la mano que te da de comer...
     
    En mi opinión, "If you lie down with dogs, you'll wake up with fleas" seria en español "el que con niños se acuesta, meado se levanta", no "cria cuervos...". Esta última expresión tiene más peso.

    Literalmente, en inglés sería: "Breed crows and they will gouge your eyes out". No se me ocurre cuál es el mejor dicho inglés... En todo caso, tampoco son las propuestas de aurilla.

    Ni "Those who live by the sword die by the sword", que es "quien a hierro mata, a hierro muere".
     
    Hola a todos(as)!!!

    Hace poco días escuche este popular refrán. ¿Podrían decirme cuál sería el equivalente de éste en Inglés?

    "Cria cuervos y te sacarán los ojos."

    Gracias de antemano!
     
    If you're referring to the traditional meaning, i.e. raising kids "wrong" and inevitably getting to suffer the consequences, you could say: "you get the children you deserve".

    In a more broad sense, e.g. a sport team coach being lax on discipline, I can't come up with an existing equivalent. Perhaps another might fulfill that purpose: "you reap what you sow."
     
    No, the meaning is -as I understand it- "No good deed will go unpunished." -at last, aurilla. Of course it can be applied to children, but also to any kind of relationship where someone does a lot of good and gets evil in return. I think it's about ingratitude rather than anything else.

    When it actually refers to children it doesn't mean that lack of discipline makes spoilt children, but it applies to children who turn their backs on their parents when they're grown up.
     
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    Many of the suggested translations have in fact much closer Spanish equivalents. For example, "You reap what you sow" exists as "Se recoge lo que se siembra", "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." is "No muerdas la mano que te da de comer." (absolutely literal), and "If you play with fire, you'll get burned." has a counterpart in Spanish too: "El que juega con fuego, se acaba quemando.".
     
    Any idea for the translation? Does it exist any idiom with the same meaning?
    Thanks!!

    This idiom is used for pointing the ingratitude of people who, owning you a favour, act against you instead of doing something good for you.
    (I'm not sure whether I've been enough clear)
     
    Spanish meaning is that you feel betrayed by someone.

    If you help many times somebody and once you ask him for help he refuse to help you, then you would say: "cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos"
     
    Alf-Med said:
    Spanish meaning is that you feel betrayed by someone.

    If you help many times somebody and once you ask him for help he refuse to help you, then you would say: "cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos"
    Click to expand...

    Obviously, a native Spanish speaker would know better but I read this slightly differently.

    My take is that something does not change its nature ("a leopard does not change his spots"), so if you encourage something dangerous/bad you should expect a bad outcome.
     
    As I see, the two points of view are complementaries. The person who refuses to help you may act in this negative way because of his bad nature. In other words, the bad nature will lead to a negative attitude (even if you have help him/her several times before)
    What do you think?
     
    Lo que me viene a la mente es la frase hecha inglesa: To bite the hand that feeds you.

    Se usa cuando te comportes mal hacia otra persona que está ayudándote o te ha ayudado en el pasado.

    Espera a ver qué opinan los demás.
     
    Berrocal98 said:
    As I see, the two points of view are complementaries. The person who refuses to help you may act in this negative way because of his bad nature. In other words, the bad nature will lead to a negative attitude (even if you have help him/her several times before)
    What do you think?
    Click to expand...
    I agree with you.
     
    Solo para información: en Panamá se usa más con este sentido:

    Que los padres crían a los hijos de una manera negativa y después estos cuando crecen le hacen las mismas cosas o peores, los tratan mal a los padres cuando llegan a viejos les grita, los maltratan, etc.
    A eso se debe el dicho de cría cuervos y te sacaran los ojos.
     
    Mirlo said:
    Solo para información: en Panamá se usa más con este sentido:

    Que los padres crían a los hijos de una manera negativa y después estos cuando crecen le hacen las mismas cosas o peores, los tratan mal a los padres cuando llegan a viejos les grita, los maltratan, etc.
    A eso se debe el dicho de cría cuervos y te sacaran los ojos.
    Click to expand...

    That sounds like "You reap what you sow."
     
    Masood said:
    Lo que me viene a la mente es la frase hecha inglesa: To bite the hand that feeds you.

    Se usa cuando te comportes mal hacia otra persona que está ayudándote o te ha ayudado en el pasado.

    Espera a ver qué opinan los demás.
    Click to expand...

    If Spanish we have "morder la mano que te alimenta", but this means to do something against someone you need for your survival or your incoming.

    "cría cuervos..." is something you say when you help (or feed, or teach, or mentor, or trust) somebody and afterwards he is not behaving as expected. Then you realize about his real personality.
     
    El "Diccionario de Refranes" de Espasa Calpe dice sobre la expresión Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos:

    Explica que los beneficios hechos a ingratos ler sirven de armas para pagar el bien con el mal.

    Está documentado su uso por el Marqués de Santillana en su Refranes que dicen las viejas tras el fuego (1454).

    ¡Es que me encanta lo del origen de los refranes!

    Saludos
    ARR
     
    Alf-Med said:
    If Spanish we have "morder la mano que te alimenta", but this means to do something against someone you need for your survival or your incoming.

    "cría cuervos..." is something you say when you help (or feed, or teach, or mentor, or trust) somebody and afterwards he is not behaving as expected. Then you realize about his real personality.
    Click to expand...
    There's another saying which might fit: You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
     
    ARR said:
    El "Diccionario de Refranes" de Espasa Calpe dice sobre la expresión Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos:

    Explica que los beneficios hechos a ingratos ler sirven de armas para pagar el bien con el mal.

    Está documentado su uso por el Marqués de Santillana en su Refranes que dicen las viejas tras el fuego (1454).

    ¡Es que me encanta lo del origen de los refranes!

    Saludos
    ARR
    Click to expand...

    Then "to bite the hand that feeds you" seems the nearest equivalent.
     
    ARR said:
    El "Diccionario de Refranes" de Espasa Calpe dice sobre la expresión Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos:

    Explica que los beneficios hechos a ingratos les sirven de armas para pagar el bien con el mal.

    Está documentado su uso por el Marqués de Santillana en su Refranes que dicen las viejas tras el fuego (1454).

    ¡Es que me encanta lo del origen de los refranes!

    Saludos
    ARR
    Click to expand...

    "No good deed goes unpunished"????
     
    Reverso online (by Collins) provides the following translation:

    Mind that you don't lavish your gifts upon the ungrateful.

    Do native speakers use it any often? It is a very popular proverb in Spanish!

    Cheers!
     
    DelaChón said:
    Mind that you don't lavish your gifts upon the ungrateful.
    Click to expand...
    Collins' translation is slightly different than the meanings given earlier in this thread for "cría cuervos".
    DelaChón said:
    Do native speakers use it any often? It is a very popular proverb in Spanish!
    Click to expand...
    An expression that is similar to the Collins version, and more common, is about throwing pearls before swine. It's a literary quote, and I don't hear it often in everyday speech, but it's a proverb -- unlike the phrase about lavishing gifts on the ungrateful, which I have never heard before.
     
    I don't think that this saying is about (lack of) gratitude, as many Spanish speakers said in this thread.
    I think, or at least I use it, to describe for example that if you "train" someone to be evil, he might eventually come after you.

    If you grow and train a dog to be aggressive, it might eventually bite you.
    If you ask your subordinates to lie to others, hide things under the carpet, etc. they will eventually do exactly that to you.
    If you, actively or by omission, grow/let your children to be rude, bad-mannered and insolent, don't expect a lot of compassion and support from them at a later time.

    It is more or less in the line of "cosecharás tu siembra", but always with the negative connotation.
     
    ^^^^^^ Yes, that's what I think.
    Is that a usual saying or just a sentence that coveys the meaning?
    And shouldn't it be "I've created a monster..."
     
    It could be too, then you would need to change it to 'and it has come back to bite me'.

    The problem is that the original would technically need to be translated as: 'Create a monster and it will come back to bite you' but I don't think that works so well. Would this make sense to a native or is it a bit forced?
     
    A mí me parece que tu propuesta tiene más que ver con la persona desagradecida que con lo que decía Gabriel en su post, que es más el sentido de la expresión "cría cuervos..." Si alimentas algo/alguien malvado por naturaleza, no conseguirás nada; solo que en el futuro te devuelva mal por bien.

    A ver si algún nativo se acuerda de alguna expresión, que seguro que tiene que haberla.

    ¡Feliz Navidad!
     
    Del diccionario de WR:

    criar [conjugation =>]
    VT
    [...]
    3 [+ ganado] to rear, raise [+ aves de corral] to breed; (para competición) to breed
    REFRÁN: cría cuervos (que te sacarán los ojos)
    qué mala suerte tuvo con sus hijos; ya sabes, cría cuervos ... she's been so unlucky with her children, after all she's done for them they've repaid her with nothing but ingratitude
    Click to expand...

    Quiero dejar asentado que no concuerdo con el ejemplo del refrán.
    Si "after all she's done for them", entonces está criando niños buenos, no cuervos.

    Cría a tus niños, educa a tus empleados, etc para que sean egoístas y traicioneros, y no esperes que sean buenos, leales y piadosos contigo.
     
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