Something wicked this way comes.
Hmm… By the pricking of my thumbs…
Something sinister is about to happen.
A bit bland isn’t it? Plus, “about to happen” isn’t really the same thing as “this way comes”, is it?
I found a few translations online, this one seems a bit better to me.
Mi prudono i pollici: arriva qualcosa d’iniquo.
I like your translation “something sinister is about to happen” much better than the official one. I think It conveys the “sta per accadere” perfectly. Why bland?
And, by the way, a nice example that in European languages (also Farsi, I was told) even hundreds of years after sword and shield fighting “right” is “right” and “left” is, well “sinister”.
Hello @anon94972132
Sorry, I should have been clearer. It is a quotation from Shakespeare, specifically Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 1.
(Second witch)
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”.
Ciao @David755502 Well I’ll be! We live and learn here every day;-) Pricking oft hapt it seems, around the bard’s time; we sing a merry madrigal at choir “I’d pluck a red rose for my love”…
V2.
I’d prick a finger on a thorn
I’d prick a finger bleeding
Red is my heart, wounded and forlorn
And your heart’s bleeding.
There you go;-)
Oops … no, you were clear enough, I should have had it ready.
So beware: Translate 17th century English to Italian and then back to contemporary English and the bard turns in his grave.