- English translation
Stay close to the Zabadani, and Zabadani's sweet fragrance will settle on you.
- Literal wording
Whoever keeps company with the Zabadani, the Zabadani's scents waft over him.
- Meaning and lesson
Zabadani is a district in Syria prized for its fragrant apples. Anyone who stays near that fruit, most plainly the man who sells it, ends up smelling of it. Being close to something good lets a little of that goodness rub off on you.
Two readings remain open. 'The Zabadani' may mean the apples, or whoever sells them, or it may mean the people of that district. Either way, closeness is pictured as a pleasant gain, with fragrance passing onto the companion.
- When it is used
Use it approvingly when someone has plainly benefited from staying near a good source, such as a fine trade, place or company. Because it presents closeness as a gain rather than a risk, it suits praise or encouragement, not warnings about bad influence.
- Region
- Levant (Zabadani area of Syria); also used in Egypt
- Register
- colloquial, popular
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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