«بَابِ الْحَزِينْ مِعَلِّمْ بِطِينْ»

Here unhappiness is pictured not in the face or voice of the sufferer but on the entrance to their home, smudged with mud. A single grim detail at the threshold stands in for how thoroughly gloom has taken hold of someone's life.

The expression works through deliberate overstatement. A listener grasps at once that the person in question is in a sorry plight, well beyond ordinary low spirits, since even the approach to where they live seems dirtied by their trouble.

Suitable for remarking, with pointed exaggeration, on someone sunk in deep grief or misfortune, whose plight seems to stain even their surroundings. It describes a person's sorry state rather than offering advice or a warning.