- English translation
Once a year, like the blessed incense!
- Literal wording
From the year to the year, O blessed storax incense!
- Meaning and lesson
The saying describes someone or something that appears only rarely, with long intervals in between. The subject is noticed for a moment, then vanishes again, and the next sighting lies far off, much like an event that recurs only when the yearly cycle returns.
The image rests on a blessed incense that is offered only at one point in the calendar. By addressing it directly, the phrase links the subject's infrequent arrivals to that annual round, so rarity and long waiting become the core of the comparison.
- When it is used
Said of a person or thing that is seen only seldom, with long stretches of absence between one appearance and the next. The speaker compares that infrequent showing to a blessed incense that comes around only once each year.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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