- English translation
Turn your back on your old, trusted friend and you will end up lost.
- Literal wording
Whoever leaves his old one goes astray.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying warns that deliberately turning away from a long-trusted companion, someone one could always lean on, leaves a person without bearings. The old tie gave direction and security. Once it is cut, confusion and helplessness follow, a bewildered straying rather than any literal journey.
Underneath lies a value placed on loyalty and continuity in relationships. It treats the abandonment of old bonds as self-defeating rather than merely unkind. The one who leaves is the one who suffers, wandering without the support that tested familiarity had quietly supplied.
- When it is used
Use it to warn someone tempted to drop a proven friend, partner, or ally for something newer and untested. It can also serve as a rueful remark about a person who did so and now finds himself adrift.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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