- English translation
Women are a bent sickle. Came the answer: if it weren't bent, it couldn't bring in the crop.
- Literal wording
Women are a crooked sickle. He said: if it were not crooked, it would not gather in [the harvest].
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb opens with a familiar complaint that women are bent or devious, then a reply turns it around through the image of a sickle. A curved harvesting blade only works because it bends; a straight one would gather nothing. The supposed flaw becomes what lets the tool function.
Applied to people, the retort suggests women's indirectness is a necessary defense against being wronged and denied their due. Yet even this defense presumes the stereotype that women are inherently crooked, so the saying reflects a historical attitude, not a claim to endorse.
- When it is used
Reported as a two-part exchange: one voice disparages women's crookedness, another answers that the curve is what makes the tool work. Suited to discussing historical folk views of gender and indirect strategies of the less powerful, framed critically rather than used as a casual remark.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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