- English translation
If your neighbor plants before you, make sure you water first.
- Literal wording
If your neighbor gets ahead of you in ploughing, get ahead of him in the first watering.
- Meaning and lesson
When another person moves first in one stage of work, do not assume the result is settled. Respond promptly through another useful stage of effort that can still strengthen your own outcome.
The saying encourages diligence, initiative, and practical competition rather than delay. It need not call for hostility toward the other person; its force is to protect and improve one’s own work by acting effectively.
- When it is used
Used to urge someone not to become passive after a neighbor, rival, or colleague acts first, especially when a timely different effort can still improve their own result.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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