ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«يَا أَرْضِ انْشَقِّي وِابْلَعِينِي»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

If only the ground would crack open and swallow me up.

Literal wording

O earth, split open and swallow me.

Meaning and lesson

The speaker calls on the ground itself to crack apart and take them in, so that nobody can see them any longer. The image turns intense embarrassment into a physical wish to disappear from the scene and escape the eyes of everyone present.

In practice the line marks a moment of acute shame or mortification, after a blunder, an exposure, or an awkward encounter. It is hyperbole, conveying how overwhelming the discomfort feels, not a literal wish for death or harm, and it often lends a self-mocking, dramatic tone to the admission.

When it is used

Say it when an awkward slip, an exposed secret, or a public blunder leaves you wanting to vanish from view. It suits first-person exclamations of embarrassment and can also describe someone else's mortified reaction.

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