- English translation
It's plain for all to see: stay up all night, and you'll sleep the day away.
- Literal wording
Written on the leaves of the cucumber: whoever stays awake at night sleeps during the day.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying presents something as so obvious it hardly needs stating. Staying awake through the night naturally leads to sleeping through the day. Calling this "written on cucumber leaves" marks it as plainly known, not an actual text or decree. The cucumber has no symbolic weight; the Arabic word khiyar was chosen to rhyme with nahar, daytime.
More broadly, it marks an outcome as the predictable result of a choice. A speaker may use it to dismiss surprise at an expected consequence or to gently mock someone for stating, or ignoring, what everybody already knows.
- When it is used
Use it to point out a consequence anyone could foresee, such as someone yawning after a late night or a small mistake leading to predictable trouble. It suits casual, slightly teasing exchanges more than formal argument.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic; rhymed folk saying
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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