blood, sweat and tears

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Popularized through a famous speech made by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons in 1940, with slight modification, but already present in earlier poetry. More information May be an extension of a much older Indo-European poetic formula “blood and tears”; compare e.g. Hittite 𒂊𒌍𒄩𒉌 𒅖𒄩𒄴𒊒𒌑𒄿 (e-eš-ḫa-ni iš-ḫa-aḫ-ru-ú-i, “in blood [and] in tear(s)”). It is common in Indo-European oral traditions to juxtapose three bodily substances pertaining to a certain theme, such as “flesh, bone and marrow” for the internal solids (cf. Calin (2017), pages 143–146).

14 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Cebuano: dugo ug singot — person's determination and hard work
• Danish: blod, sved og tårer — person's determination and hard work
• Dutch: bloed, zweet en tranen — person's determination and hard work
• Finnish: verta, hikeä ja kyyneleitä — person's determination and hard work
• German: Blut, Schweiß und Tränen — person's determination and hard work
• Italian: sudore, lacrime e sangue — person's determination and hard work
• Korean: 피땀 (pittam) — person's determination and hard work
• Malay: darah, peluh, dan air mata — person's determination and hard work
• Norwegian Bokmål: blod, svette og tårer — person's determination and hard work
• Norwegian Nynorsk: blod, sveitte og tårer — person's determination and hard work
• Polish: krwawica — person's determination and hard work
• Spanish: sangre, sudor y lágrimas — person's determination and hard work
• Swedish: blod, svett och tårar — person's determination and hard work
• Tagalog: dugo at pawis — person's determination and hard work