We stopped the road completely with a never-ending pipe. Drivers were not too happy.
A trainload of coal on the high level bridge in Newcastle
carry/take coals to Newcastle (UK)
to supply something to a place or person that already has a lot of that particular thing:
Exporting pine to Scandinavia seems like carrying coals to Newcastle.
Cambridge Dictionary
Corresponding Flemish proverb: bring water to the sea: carry coals to Newcastle.
Bringing sand to the beach.
Emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.
Coals to Newcastle.
Carrying water in the Danaïds’ jars.
Pouring good money after bad.
It is rather like flogging a dead horse.
Carrying water from the desert to the sea.
But look’s water over the dam.
That strikes me as a futile exercise.
Luister, goeddoen aan addergebroed is water naar de zee dragen.
Being friendly to villains is like throwing water into the sea.
Je doet je best, maar lijkt het er af en toe niet op… dat je een beetje water naar de zee aan het dragen bent?
You do your best, but does it ever feel… like it’s emptying a sea of misery with a tea cup?
In Greek mythology, the Danaids (or Danaides) were the fifty daughters of Danaus, King of Argos. On the command of their father they married the fifty sons of Aegyptus and had to kill them on their wedding nights. Everybody, except Hypermnestra who was a wife of Lynceus, fulfilled their father s bloody order. As punishment, the Danaids were dispatched to Hades where they were condemned to everlastingly pour water into a bottomless barrel.
The slaves of Danaus. The fifty daughters of Danaus. The killers of husbands
The Danaids, also known as the Daughters of Danaus are a group of characters in Hesiod and Homer’s Greek Mythology. They make their début in around 700 BCE and are scheduled to appear in the novel, “Alternate Realities”.
