المستعجل والبطي عند المعدية يلتقي

Patience and delayed outcomesReviewed 2026-08-24

Sense: Verified

Literal translation: The one who hurries and the slow one meet at the ferry.
Natural translation: The one who hurries and the slow one meet at the ferry.

Functional meaning: Hurrying gains nothing when the real bottleneck is outside the traveller’s control.
Usage context: The source explains that Nile ferries waited for enough passengers, so early and late arrivals could leave together. No current-use claim is made.

Community: Cairene Arabic speakers as recorded by Burckhardt
Region: Cairo, Egypt
Historical period: Recorded as current at Cairo c. 1816–17 and published in 1830; no claim of current 2026 usage.
Register: colloquial Egyptian Arabic as historically collected

Arabic Proverbs; or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern EgyptiansJohn Lewis Burckhardt; edited by William Ouseley1830Book
Locator: no. 52, p. 14
The source explains that Nile ferries waited for enough passengers, so early and late arrivals could leave together. No current-use claim is made.
Claim: VerifiedHistorical or primary sourceAI data-completeness reviewer, 2026-08-24
Rights cleared. Only short Arabic proverb strings and factual bibliographic or locator metadata; use original ProverbHub translations and explanations; do not reproduce scan pages or surrounding source commentary.

Arabic Proverbs; or, The Manners and Customs of the Modern EgyptiansJohn Lewis Burckhardt; edited by William Ouseley1830Book
Locator: no. 52, p. 14
Recorded as current at Cairo c. 1816–17 and published in 1830; no claim of current 2026 usage.
Claim: VerifiedHistorical or primary sourceAI data-completeness reviewer, 2026-08-24
Rights cleared. Only short Arabic proverb strings and factual bibliographic or locator metadata; use original ProverbHub translations and explanations; do not reproduce scan pages or surrounding source commentary.

How this record reached us: AI suggested. This describes provenance and does not raise confidence.

Meanings