Meterse en camisas de once varas
To get into eleven-yard shirts.
to bite off more than you can chew; **to bite off more than you can chew**; **to get oneself into a mess**; **to get involved in something unnecessarily**; **to stick your nose into something**; **to ask for trouble** (depending on context)
Meterse en camisas de once varas means to become involved in a situation that is unnecessarily difficult, complicated or outside one's responsibility.
No te metas en camisas de once varas.
Don't bite off more than you can chew.
Siempre acaba metiéndose en camisas de once varas.
He always gets himself into unnecessary trouble.
Nos metimos en una camisa de once varas sin necesidad.
We got involved in something we should have avoided.
No quiero meterme en camisas de once varas.
I don't want to get mixed up in all that.
It often suggests that the person could have avoided the problem altogether.
The expression usually carries mild criticism.
- interferes in other people's problems
- creates unnecessary complications
- accepts responsibilities they should avoid
- becomes involved in an issue that is none of their business
- makes life more difficult than necessary
The expression is generally linked to a medieval legal custom connected with adoption.
During the ceremony, a child was symbolically passed through the wide sleeve or opening of a long ceremonial garment.
A vara was an old Spanish unit of length (roughly 84 centimetres), and the exaggerated image of an enormous garment eventually became associated with entering situations that were unnecessarily complicated.
The expression has preserved its figurative meaning for centuries.
Spanish speakers rarely use the idiom for unavoidable difficulties.
It is much more common when the problem has been created voluntarily.
The underlying idea is:
"Nobody forced you to get involved."
This is one of the oldest idioms still widely used in modern Spanish.
Millions of Spaniards say:
No te metas en camisas de once varas.
without knowing what a vara was or why the shirt is eleven varas long.
The historical image has faded.
The warning has not.
Do not translate the expression literally.
English speakers would never say:
He got into an eleven-yard shirt.
Instead, translate the intended meaning:
- He bit off more than he could chew.
- He got himself into a mess.
- He got involved in something he should have avoided.
The image of the oversized shirt belongs uniquely to Spanish.
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