He's afraid of his own shadow.

[Encolpius]

Hello, do you use that idiom in your language? We do. Thanks.
It means someone is extremely timid.

Hungarian: A saját árnyékától is fél.
[a(the), saját (own), árnyékától (of his shadow), is (as well), fél (be afraid]

 

[Rallino]

Yes we do as well in Turkish.

Kendi gölgesinden bile korkar.

[Kendi(own) gölgesinden(of his shadow) bile(even) korkar(is afraid). ]

 

[ilocas2]

Hello, do you use that idiom in your language?

No

It would be:

Bojí se i vlastního stínu (He's afraid even of own shadow)

 

[apmoy70]

In Greek it's a common saying:
«Φοβάται και την σκιά του/της»
fo'vate ce tin sci'a tu [male]/tis [female]
lit. "s/he is afraid even of his/her shadow"

[c] is a voiceless palatal plosive

 

[sakvaka]

Finnish: Hän pelkää omaa varjoaankin.
Russian: Он(а) боится собственной тени.

 

[itreius]

Croatian

Boji se vlastite sjene.
Boji se svoje sjene.
[(he/she/it) is afraid - own - shadow]

 

[Orlin]

Bulgarian: Бои се от сянката си. [(he/she/it) is afraid - shadow - own]

 

[enoo]

That idiom is used in French too (at least in France.)

Il a peur de son ombre. - He's afraid of his shadow.

 

[jazyk]

In Portuguese:

Ele tem medo da própria sombra.

 

[merquiades]

In Spanish (similar to Portuguese):
Tiene miedo de su propia sombra

 

[Elvus]

In Polish it is:

bać się własnego cienia - to be afraid of own shadow

(On/ona/ono) boi się własnego cienia. - (He/she/it) is afraid of his/her/its own shadow.

 

[mataripis]

TAGALOG: Takut Masundan ng sariling anino.

 

[Encolpius]

I haven't heard it in Czech either, but I happened to check it in my dictionary now and it says: bát se vlastního stínu [literal translation] bibax, art thou here?

 

[bibax]

I heard it in Czech.

In German "sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten fürchten".

Another saying using "his own shadow" (with completely different meaning, of course):

Nikdy nepřekročí svůj vlastní stín. = He will never jump (stride) over his own shadow.
Není schopen překročit svůj vlastní stín. = He is not able to jump (stride) over his own shadow.

 

[ger4]

"Sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten fürchten" is correct, of course, but I think in Germany it isn't used as often as the other saying Bibax mentioned:
Nikdy nepřekročí svůj vlastní stín. = He will never jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er wird nie über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.
Není schopen překročit svůj vlastní stín. = He is not able to jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er kann nicht über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.

 

[Dymn]

In Catalan:
Té por de la seva pròpia ombra.

 

[ThomasK]

"Sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten fürchten" is correct, of course, but I think in Germany it isn't used as often as the other saying Bibax mentioned:
Nikdy nepřekročí svůj vlastní stín. = He will never jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er wird nie über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.
Není schopen překročit svůj vlastní stín. = He is not able to jump (stride) over his own shadow. = Er kann nicht über seinen eigenen Schatten springen.

Dutch: hij is bang voor zijn eigen schaduw.

The other one is unknown to me.

 

[ger4]

According to dict.cc the other sentence - Man kann nicht über seinen eigenen Schatten springen ("one cannot/isn't able to stride across one's own shadow") - is more similar to the English expression "The leopard cannot change his spots" - so, I guess, the closest German equivalent to "He is afraid of his own shadow" is Er fürchtet sich vor seinem eigenen Schatten, at least that would be the literal translation - even though, depending on the context, I would rather associate sein eigener Schatten with "his own past", very often in a negative sense - the fear of falling back into [one's own][bad][old] habits, old habits taking over once again, something like that; difficult to express this...

 

[elroy]

Palestinian Arabic: بِخاف من خيالو

 

[rarabara]

in kurdish we say;

ژ س'یە خ ژ د ترسە (j siyo ğo ji dı tırse)

 

[Perseas]

In Greek it's a common saying:
«Φοβάται και την σκιά του/της»

Also, from "σκιά" ("shadow") derives the verb "σκιάζομαι" which means "to be afraid".

 

[Rocko!]

In Spanish (similar to Portuguese):
Tiene miedo de su propia sombra

The Mexican version says: “Le teme hasta a su propia sombra”