- English translation
Anyone who cannot see through a sieve must be blind.
- Literal wording
Whoever cannot see through a sieve is blind.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb is said of a matter so plainly before the eyes that failing to recognize it is compared with blindness. The sieve’s holes make the image emphatic: it offers no real barrier to seeing what is on the other side.
It is applied when someone rejects or denies something considered unmistakably evident. It is a pointed rebuke, using a traditional comparison to blindness rather than endorsing assumptions about blind people; it stresses the speaker’s view that the point is too clear to be reasonably overlooked.
- When it is used
Use it to criticize denial of something presented as plainly visible or self-evident. Because it can sound sharply accusatory and uses a traditional comparison to blindness, reserve it for contexts where that force is intended, not as a statement about blind people.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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