- English translation
Bondwomen waiting on bondwomen, O Time, how treacherous you are!
- Literal wording
Slave-women serving slave-women, from your treachery, O Time!
- Meaning and lesson
The saying protests a reversal among equals. Two enslaved women of the same lowly position end up with one serving the other, though nothing but luck sets one above the other, and the speaker finds that arrangement absurd and unfair.
By crying out to Time and calling it treacherous, the speaker blames fate rather than the person who has risen. This is a complaint about luck, not a theological claim. The tone blends resentment with resigned irony at how arbitrarily fortune hands out rank.
- When it is used
Fits a wry or bitter remark when someone of equal standing gains authority over peers through luck rather than merit. Because it rests on images of slavery, apply it to real people with care.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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