- English translation
Says the hen to her mistress: Stop holding your feed over us, we scratched for every bit of it ourselves.
- Literal wording
The hen says to her owner: Do not boast over us; this is the toil of our legs.
- Meaning and lesson
The hen answers the woman who keeps her, refusing to have the grain she eats held over her. The verb literally means bragging, but here it means throwing a favor in someone's face. Whatever she has eaten, she insists, came from her own scratching in the dirt, so it is no gift deserving gratitude.
Applied to people, the saying rebukes anyone who repeatedly reminds another of supposed favors when that support was in fact earned. It exposes unjustified claims of generosity and defends the dignity of a person whose own effort is being passed off as someone else's kindness.
- When it is used
Use it as a pointed reply to someone who repeatedly boasts of feeding or supporting another person when the supposed beneficiary earned what they received. The hen's protest exposes an undeserved claim to generosity and resists having honest labor treated as a favor.
- Register
- Colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Says the hen to her mistress: Stop holding your feed over us, we scratched for every bit of it ourselves.