Растекаться мыслью по древу

A truly funny version. The famous chronicle The Tale of Igor's Campaign (Слово о полку Игореве) contains an as famous line "растекаться мыслью по древу", which has been a puzzle for the translators for centuries. 

Literally it looks to means 'to spread the thought over a tree'. But once we remember that DREV in Svan language means 'time', and is the source for the Ukrainian/Russia word "древний" (ancient), the phrase obtains a new meaning: 'to spread the though over time'. Much more understandable now. 

To verify the hypothesis let's google if there are any uses of 'растекаться мыслью по времени'... Yes, there are two, one of them being a line in a work of Yakov Krotov, famous Ukrainian clergyman: http://krotov.info/yakov/varia/zlobaday/1975medi.htm