Lost In Translation

X was doing a plasmid prep today, which involved a step where liquid flew through a column and DNA got stuck on it.

So she was sitting on a stool in front of the setup, mindlessly staring at the liquid dripping away.

The boss walked out of his office for some coffee. Amused by X's Zen-like stunt, he commented:"A watched pot never boils."

Then he turned to me:"Have you ever heard of this saying? 'A watched pot never boils'?"

( See, he is our boss AND our English teacher.)

I said:"No, but it's easy to get the meaning."

He said:"Yeah. I'm sure you have some similar sayings in Chinese, right?"

Out of diginity, I answered immediately:"Sure we have."

But when I really thought about it, I couldn't find its Chinese equivalent. There might be a saying goes something like:"If you lift the lid of a pot for too many times, the dumplings in it will never be fully cooked." Sounds so lame. If this saying really exists, which I am not sure, the exact wording must be much cleaner and smarter.

The take-home lesson: don't ever try to be a translator.