ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«جُوَارْ يِخْدِمُوا جْوَارْ مِنْ غَدْرِتَكْ يَا زَمَانْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
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