- English translation
You're so pleased with the present that you've forgotten what it will cost you.
- Literal wording
O woman so glad of the gift, O woman wholly distracted!
- Meaning and lesson
The saying teases someone so taken with a gift that she overlooks the obligation it carries. The address is grammatically feminine, but the lesson applies to anyone. By custom, a present invites a return of comparable worth one day. The point is not that receiving gifts is wrong, but that delight should not hide the duty to reciprocate.
More broadly, the proverb applies to anyone so absorbed in obtaining or winning something that they lose sight of the duties, costs, or consequences that follow. It warns that the pleasure of gain can hide what the gain demands.
- When it is used
Say it, often teasingly, to anyone overjoyed by a windfall, favor, or success who seems unaware of the return, repayment, or responsibility attached. It applies whenever an acquisition brings an obligation still waiting ahead.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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