estar en la luna de Valencia
Meaning: Completely distracted or absent-minded, oblivious to what's happening around you.
Language: Spanish
Literally: to be in the moon of Valencia
Category: The Absurd
Origin: No single theory is fully confirmed. One traces it to medieval Valencia's city walls, whose gates closed nightly at the sound of a curfew bell and reopened only at dawn — anyone arriving just too late to get inside had no choice but to spend the night outside, exposed "a la luna de Valencia," under Valencia's moon. A second, offered by journalist Vicente Vidal Corella, ties the phrase instead to the 17th-century expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain, when many were forced to wait for days on the beaches near Valencia for the ships that would carry them to North Africa — stranded under that same moon while their fate was decided elsewhere. A third, more purely linguistic theory treats it as a natural extension of the older "dejar a la luna," to leave someone with nothing, applied here to anyone left without what they had hoped for or expected.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Avoir la tête dans les nuages — literally: To have one's head in the clouds
- Serbian: Пасти с Марса (Pasti s Marsa) — literally: To fall from Mars
- Galician: Estar nas verzas — literally: To be in the cabbages
- English: have one's head in the clouds
More idioms — The Absurd
- avere la coda di paglia — Feel guilty about something because you're afraid of being discovered or criticized.
- 호랑이도 제 말 하면 온다 (Horangido je mal hamyeon onda) — Speaking of someone often enough may cause them to unexpectedly appear; talk of the devil.
- пускать пыль в глаза (puskat' pyl' v glaza) — To deceive or mislead someone, creating false impressions through trickery.
- meter os pés pelas mãos — Make a clumsy mistake or bungle something badly through carelessness.
- 杞憂 (Kiyū) — Unnecessary worry about things that won't happen; baseless anxiety.
- 臥虎藏龍 (Wò hǔ cáng lóng) — Hidden talented individuals waiting quietly for their moment to shine.
More Spanish idioms
- irse por los cerros de Úbeda — To digress or wander off-topic during conversation without purpose or reason.
- comerse un rosco — To fail completely or strike out; to get nothing at all in a romantic or competitive cont…
- estar más claro que el agua — Something is obvious, evident, and beyond any doubt or confusion.
- tener un rabo de paja — To feel guilty or anxious about something, fearing exposure of a personal fault or secret.
- Hablar por los codos — To talk nonstop.
- Costar un ojo de la cara — To be outrageously expensive.
From our proverbs
- A gem cannot be polished without friction — Excellence and greatness are only achieved through struggle and hardship.
- Dripping water hollows out stone — Persistent small efforts accomplish what force alone cannot.
- The darkest hour is just before the dawn — Situations often worsen right before they improve dramatically.