- English translation
Bear one child, then a second, and she has become a worn-out old woman.
- Literal wording
Whoever bore a child, and then the second, became a decrepit old woman.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb dramatizes the physical cost of motherhood. After bearing a child and then a second one, a woman is pictured as having turned into a decrepit old woman, as if two rounds of pregnancy and delivery were enough to consume her youth and strength entirely.
The wording uses masculine verb forms, yet its subject is plainly the mother. The opening repeats the word walad, and the rhyme of tani with fani ties the second birth to the image of a spent old woman. The line is a vivid hyperbole, not a factual observation.
- When it is used
Suited to informal remarks about how physically draining pregnancy and delivery are, for instance when a woman who has borne two children looks exhausted. The overstatement signals that the speaker is dramatizing hardship, not describing actual aging.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Bear one child, then a second, and she has become a worn-out old woman.