Literal translation
He's as nasty as hail.
Meaning
he's as nasty as hail
Explanation
This comparison describes a very bad temper by likening it to grelo, hail, a weather phenomenon dreaded in the countryside for its sudden violence and the damage it can inflict on crops within minutes. The image transfers to a person the destructive, brutal qualities of this natural scourge: marrit, nasty or bad, is intensified by the comparison with a phenomenon that strikes without warning and without discrimination. Hail, unlike rain or wind, has long represented in the peasant imagination an almost unjust calamity, capable of ruining an entire season's work in an instant, which gives the comparison a particular emotional charge beyond mere violence. The expression belongs to a family of comparisons that borrow their images from weather and nature to describe human character, a family that also includes the sayings about cold and heat. It is said in ordinary register, often with a touch of fear or disapproval, about someone reputed to be harsh or vindictive.