- English translation
Keep on scratching and you'll raise sores that won't heal.
- Literal wording
Much scratching brings up the bala (malignant, hard-to-heal sores).
- Meaning and lesson
The saying pictures a person who keeps scratching an itch until the skin breaks out in malignant sores that refuse to heal; here البلا names those bodily eruptions, not abstract trouble. Relief pursued without restraint turns a passing annoyance into a real affliction.
As a lesson, it cautions against excess: overdoing cures and constantly meddling with one's health. It does not reject treatment or medicine as such. Someone who chases remedy after remedy may develop new ailments they never anticipated, so moderation is wiser.
- When it is used
Use it to warn someone who keeps fussing over a minor ailment or irritation, piling on remedies, that excessive tampering may create a worse, harder-to-heal problem. It is not a case against treatment itself, and it can extend to picking at a small issue until it festers.
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- Colloquial Arabic proverb
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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