Hello! I'm trying to translate the song "Shine on you crazy diamond", and I'm a bit puzzled by the sentence: "You wore out your welcome in random precision"; it's commonly translated literally as: "Hai consumato il tuo benvenuto con precisione casuale" but this doesn't make much sense to me... I was wondering if "wearing out a welcome" can be an idiomatic expression; or shall I just take it as it is, as we often have to do with poetry, without analysing too much? Thanks!!
"To wear out your welcome" is an idiom. Have a look here: http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/wear+out+welcome I've heard my mother-in-law use an expression something like "l'ospite comincia a puzzare", but I don't know how common it is.....
To wear out your welcome is indeed an idomatic expression, meaning you've used up all the good feelings that were extended to you when you first arrived. @murphy I was thinking of the expression "house guests are like fish; after three days they go bad." (Not something I adhere to but I've heard this)
It's quite common: "l'ospite è come il pesce, dopo tre giorni puzza" (there may be several variations on the same theme). To translate that idiom in (bad) Italian: hai esaurito il tuo benvenuto.
I personally have never heard it in English but the fish thing seems to be quite a universal concept, then.
