- English translation
To its own mother, even a beetle is a bride.
- Literal wording
The beetle, in its mother's view, is a bride.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying describes how a mother's love transforms what she sees. Her own child, however plain to others, appears to her as lovely as a bride on her wedding day, a woman at her most adorned and admired. The humor rests on the beetle being commonly seen as an unattractive creature.
More broadly, it speaks to the special standing children hold in their parents' eyes. It presents this fondness as a natural part of parental love, whatever a detached observer might conclude about the child.
- When it is used
Suited to good-humored remarks when a parent praises a son or daughter well beyond what others see. Because it implies the child is unlovely, use it with care around someone's actual child.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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