- English translation
The big grain bin sneers at the little dovecote, but we are all just mud walls, silly one!
- Literal wording
A grain bin taunts a pigeon cote: all of us are packed mud, O heedless one!
- Meaning and lesson
The saying deflates anyone who looks down on another of the same modest kind. The difference being flaunted, whether of size, rank or standing, counts for nothing when both parties are made of the same ordinary material. Bigness alone gives no grounds for scorn.
The imagery sets a large mud-built grain bin against a tiny mud shelter for pigeons, both walled from mud alone, without brick. The two halves rhyme on their closing syllables. The retort rests on that shared humble material: all of them are one substance, so any claim of superiority between them collapses.
- When it is used
Use it when someone ridicules a peer for a flaw or lowliness they share, or brags about a small edge over an equal. It works as a sharp but humorous rebuke, reminding the boaster that both of them come from the same plain stuff.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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