- English translation
Off to forced labor, peasants? Then one man from each village.
- Literal wording
The corvée, O peasants! From every village a man.
- Meaning and lesson
The line stages a short exchange about a past practice. Peasants are summoned to العونة, here not voluntary aid but compulsory unpaid village labor such as canal digging, now abolished. One of them replies that each village should send just one man, accepting the work but objecting to one place supplying the whole quota.
More broadly, it states that a common burden should be spread across everyone who shares it. No one community should carry it alone. Read as a call followed by a protesting reply, it is a demand for an even division of the load, not a refusal to bear it.
- When it is used
Fits moments when a shared obligation, such as work, cost or duty, is about to fall entirely on one household, department or group. A speaker can use it to insist that every party send its portion. The tone suits a fairness protest, not an outright refusal to take part.
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- Colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Off to forced labor, peasants? Then one man from each village.