hares

[hector_von_kyiv]

Hi, Linguaphiles!

I'm trying to collect as many idioms, phrases and proverbs from various languages with hare (or rabbit) in them as possible.
Everyone's contribution appreciated.

Here's what Ukrainian language got, for instance:

ганятися за двома зайцями (to hunt two hares) - to try to accomplish two things at the same time and not to succeed

Comments

[mrskyouya]

Finnish:

pupu pöksyssä (a bunny inside one's trousers) = be scared
jänistää (act like a rabbit) = chicken out

Examples:
Menikö pupu pöksyyn? (Did a bunny go into your trousers?) = Are you scared?
Onko pupu pöksyssä? (Is there a bunny in your trousers?) = Are you scared?
Aiotko jänistää tästä? (Are you about act like a rabbit about this?) = Are about to chicken out out of this?

In Finnish "jänis" means "rabbit/hare". The translation for "pupu" is "bunny" but I guess it comes close enough to what you are looking for. :)

[hector_von_kyiv]

Kiitos paljon :)

[mrskyouya]

Ole hyvä. :)

[vout]

Hasenfuß (foot of a hare) is used for soeone who is a coward in German.

[tinchen]

Also German:
"da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer" (there the rabbit lies in the pepper (the spice)), meaning "and this is the reason it is so". (sometimes mixed up with "da liegt der hund begraben" (that's where the dog is buried).

[tinchen]

I'm not sure if that counts, but people who thought to have a lot of sex are said to do it "wie die Karnickel" (like rabbits).

[fenoxielo524]

Same in English.

[kaji_sensei]

Don't know any offhand, but I'm sure Japanese has to have something along these lines, considering their equivalent of the Man in the Moon is a rabbit making mochi. Also recall one of my Japanese teachers explaining a rather complex bit of Japanese logic that was applied many hundreds of years ago to make it kosher to eat rabbits in spite of Buddhist rules about not hurting any form of life; think it was something to the effect of that the rabbit "flies" (the words for "jump" and "fly" are pronounced the same way in Japanese).

[hector_von_kyiv]

Isn't it also the reason why Japanese uses the same counter word (羽) for both birds and rabbits?

[kaji_sensei]

I believe it is, yeah.

[ditdatdo]

Some English ones that spring to mind, in case you didn't know them:

Mad as a March hare - based on the idea that hares can look a bit crazy when it's mating season. Wikipedia explains better.

Pull a rabbit out of the hat - referencing the classic magic trick, the idea is that you've created something from nothing, surprising everyone by suddenly finding a solution to a problem.

Rabbit (caught) in headlights - the animal in question can also be a deer, but essentially they're so frightened and shocked that they can't move.

Breed like rabbits - pretty much self-explanatory. A similar phrase is also "at it like rabbits" - constantly having sex, without so much of a connotation of having many children as a result.

And, if we're also using bunny:

Not a happy bunny - basically an amusing way of saying "not very happy at all".

Some of these might be limited to British use, I don't know.

[orange_fell]

I once ran across a weird alternative to "mad as a March hare" in one of Lucy Maud Montgomery's books: "mad as a November partridge"! Prince Edward Island dialect, maybe.

[orange_fell]

English also has "to take off like a hare, go haring off."

[miconazole]

I don't think "breed like rabbits" really refers to sex as much as having millions of babies. Like I might say "Gee, those Duggars sure are breeding like rabbits" or "If you don't separate your guinea pigs they're going to breed like rabbits". If a couple is constantly having sex I would probably use, pardon my French, "fucking like rabbits".

[orange_fell]

This book is strange, but has exhaustively researched references on the cultural symbolism of rabbits/hares, from ancient Mayan murals to the movie Harvey. It's interesting how many worldwide associations there are between rabbits and the moon. Link: http://www.amazon.com/Rabbits-Everywhere-Alicia-Ezpeleta/dp/0810937816

In Japanese (and Chinese) folklore, there is a rabbit instead of a man in the moon. In Japanese pop culture, the "guardian of the moon" character Sailor Moon is a girl named Tsukino Usagi (tsuki no usagi = rabbit of the moon). Don't know if that's useful to you!