It’s probably not the most poetic, but I like it:

Luftschloss

It literally means „air castle“. It’s a castle made entirely out of air. It looks stunning and grand in your imagination or when you talk about it, but it’s not real.

It’s like having a dream or a vision that sounds great but is completely unrealistic or impossible to achieve.

In English, you might say „pipe dream“ or „castle in the air“, but „Luftschloss“ sounds way more poetic and fragile, evoking something beautiful yet intangible.

There’s another one which is similar, but not the same:

Hirngespinst

The literal transition would be a delicate web spun by your mind. In Englisch you’d probably also say „pipe dream“, but there’s a subtle difference between „Luftschloss“ and „Hirngespinst“.

„Hirngespinst“ is more like an absurd or even silly idea you came up with. By contrast, a „Luftschloss“ tends to describe a beautiful but unrealistic vision with a broader, often more hopeful scope.

Tabarnak

Considered a very strong profanity. It takes the place of “Oh shit!” but with the sting of saying something like the C word in public. Poetic because it’s not a bad word at all. It references the tabernacle of a church where communion is kept. It’s only hardcore because Quebec is very Catholic, more than half, and it’s considered blasphemous. Especially by older folks.

Not poetic I reckon, but I like that effective has two Fs and defective only has one. That missing F makes something not work. So, in essence, sometimes, to give an F can help make something work.

in german, the uterus literally translates to birthmither

an actually poetic word in german is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

not because it is very romantic or sounds nice, but bcs you can basically fill 2 poems with it

Not my language, but I like the Dutch word “peperduur” for “very expensive.” I like that the meaning has both historical and emotional aspects: pepper was once very expensive, and a high price can be considered spicy.

In English, “crestfallen” is a good one. When I read it I immediately imagine someone hanging their head in dismay.

I like widdershins, which just means counter-clockwise, or circling something while keeping to the left.

Qapla’: said to wish fortune on someone, as in “good luck”, particularly fortune in some form of honourable battle.

English - paraprosdokian - it means a sentence that has a surprise twist. eg. Some people are like slinkies: not really good for much, but they bring a smile to your face when you see one tumble down a set of stairs. From the Greek, basically meaning beyond expectations.

And placenta is mother cake

Being from Vienna, my word is naturally an insult.

“Meine Allerwerterste/Mein Allerwerterster” (female and male version)

On the one hand, it’s a formal and very polite address to someone (meaning something like “my dearest”), but at the same time the word means “my ass”.

So with that word you can sound extremely polite and nice while at the same time calling them an ass.

yeah, in Swedish it’s livmoder. Which means the same thing

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Same language, also poetic, but far from beautiful: Rævsnerk. I’ll leave the translation and interpretation as an exercise to the reader.

Hint: Hot and humid day.

No one has done English yet so I’ll go. My favorite is “flatulence” which roughly translates to “gas out of the butt”