Cross my heart and hope to die

[810senior]

I think most of languages have the phrase you would say when you make a promise and vow not to break it.

In English:
Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye (I know this quote came from the poem, right?)

In Japanese:
指きりげんまん嘘ついたら針千本飲ます yubikiri genman uso tsuitara hari senbon nomasu
Have our fingers crossed, punch you ten thousand times, when you lie, let you swallow thousand needles.

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What about it in your language?

 

[apmoy70]

In Greek:


«Να πέσει φωτιά να με κάψει» [na ˈpesi foˈtça na me ˈkapsi] --> fire to fall (from above) and char me


«Φιλάω Σταυρό» [fiˈla.o staˈvro] --> kiss the cross


«Μάρτυς μου ο Θεός» [ˈmartis mu o θeˈos] --> God is my witness


Ancient Greeks vowed to deities:

«Νὴ (τόν) Δία» nḕ (tón) Díă --> by (the) Zeus; «νὴ (τόν) Ἀπόλλω» nḕ (tón) Ăpóllō --> by (the) Apollo etc.
«Νὴ» nḕ is a particle of strong affirmation that when used with the name of the deity in accusative, invokes divinity. Correponds with Latin nē, really, perhaps from PIE *(h₁e)no-, that one.

 

[DearPrudence]

In French:
"croix de bois, croix de fer, si je mens, je vais en enfer" (literally: "wooden cross, iron cross, if I lie, I go to hell")
The mention of the two crosses is not so clear to me but "fer" and "enfer" rhyme and the rhythm is pretty nice I would say.

 

[rusita preciosa]

Russian:
зуб даю /zub daiu/- I swear on my tooth (lit. I give my tooth)
голову даю на отсечение /golovu daiu na otsechenie/- I swear on my head (lit., I give my head for cutting off)
чтоб мне сдохнуть /tchtob mne sdokhnut/ - I swear on my life (lit., for me to croak)

 

[Ghabi]

It's not exactly used for swearing, but there's a rhyming saying in Cantonese (often used by a parent to admonish a child):

講大話甩大牙 gong2 daai6waa6 lat1 daai6(ng)aa4 "tell big-words; fall big-teeth"

"Big-words" mean "lies" in Cantonese (but da4hua4 means "bragging; boasting" in Mandarin, a pair of false friends), and "big-teeth" mean "molars": "You'll lose your molars if you tell lies!"

 

[Encolpius]

Context? Just because I think it is mainly a scout promise or what....Czechs, French have the same...I cannot recall any Hungarian kids promise now
But if you just want to hear a type of promise used by adults here you go:

Hungarian -- Isten bizony! Becsszó! Ez a színtiszta igazság!

 

[ilocas2]

Context? Just because I think it is mainly a scout promise or what....Czechs, French have the same...I cannot recall any Hungarian kids promise now
But if you just want to hear a type of promise used by adults here you go:

Hungarian -- Isten bizony! Becsszó! Ez a színtiszta igazság!

I must say that in Czech there is not the saying provided in the post #3 for French, I didn't find any ocurrence with those crosses except few translations of some French texts.

 

[ger4]

It's quite strange but I can't think of any similar expression in German either (I'll keep thinking though...)

 

[810senior]

Thanks for lots of replies!
I thought this type of vow phrase would be everywhere in the world so I need to take it back.

Either way I'd like to add extra information to Japanese.
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We say this phrase as if we sang it in the case you make a promise with someone, so below are whole sentence and literal translation (it's so brutal in some points...):
>Yubikiri gemman, uso tsuitara, hari senbon nomasu zo, yubi kitta
Cutting a finger, punching you ten thousand times, when you lied, I let you swallow thousand needles, we've cut a finger

to cut a finger refers to make a promise(the act of having each finger crossed) and we've cut a finger expresses itself that the promise has been made.
Of course, we don't cut any finger actually.

 

[mataripis]

Yes.there is a need to revive it.I forgot the translation in Tagalog but I am not sure if other ethnic groups have the words of Honor to tell this.Tagalog folks have short phrase- maasahan mo ako.