Arabic proverbs

Better that I bear my own hardship than make others bear with me.

The speaker would rather put up with scarcity and manage on limited means than borrow, fall behind on repayment, and leave lenders waiting. Enduring one's own hardship is presented as more dignified than becoming a burden whose delays others must tolerate. The patience meant concerns debt and repayment, not self-restraint in general.

Right there before your eyes, merchant.

The saying marks something as completely evident. It is so plainly exposed that anyone who looks can see it, and nothing about it is hidden, disguised, or left to guesswork. The speaker treats the matter as needing no further demonstration.

We braced ourselves for the snake and never gave the scorpion a thought.

The saying describes a common lapse of vigilance. When people brace themselves against a serious, obvious danger, they can become so absorbed in that defense that a smaller, quieter threat slips past them unnoticed and ends up doing the actual damage.

Keep it stored away; sooner or later some sucker will turn up and buy it.

The saying advises against destroying or discarding something just because it has failed to sell or attract interest. Keep it stored and unspoiled in its containers, it suggests, because sooner or later someone will come along who is willing to take it off your hands.

An aged mule does not fear the jingle of bells.

Long experience can make threats and noisy displays lose their power. Someone who has endured many hardships may recognize intimidating talk as mere sound rather than a sign of real danger.

Better the ship that carries them off than the ship that delivers them.

The proverb sets two vessels side by side: one carrying passengers away and one carrying them in. Preferring the outbound boat is a pointed way of saying that certain people are more welcome leaving than arriving, so their exit is cause for quiet celebration.

A wayward woman will reform only when water curdles.

The saying voices utter disbelief that a woman branded as sexually or morally transgressive will repent or reform. It likens such change to water curdling like milk, an impossibility in the traditional explanation.

Like the man at the scale, you know the true weight only when the weighing is done.

The saying holds that a matter is truly settled only at its close. Early signs, whether promising or discouraging, do not decide the result. What counts is how things finally turn out.

They spit in a vile man's face, and he says, “It is rain.”

The proverb portrays someone subjected to an overtly insulting act who calls it rain. Its force lies in the glaring mismatch between what others have done and the harmless account he gives of it.

Some days go your way, and some days go against you.

The saying holds that fortune never stays with one party. Good times and bad times take turns, so a day that brings gain may be followed by one that brings loss. Its two halves stand in exact parallel, with only "for you" and "against you" changing.

Rain fell on the salt man, and the taro man began to sing. The salt man said to him, 'So it came for some people and not for others.'

The same event can bless one person and ruin another. A shower that spoils one man's salt makes another man's taro thrive, so one rainfall brings joy to one neighbor and loss to the next. Fortune does not land evenly; it favors whoever needs what it happens to bring.

He goes swimming but never takes his eyes off his clothes.

The proverb pictures a swimmer who is immersed in the water yet keeps glancing toward the clothes left on shore. It celebrates a person whose alertness does not lapse, someone able to attend to one matter without letting another slip from view.

Give him only as much shadow show as his oil will keep lit.

The saying holds that effort should be proportioned to compensation. The image is of staging a shadow play, whose lamp burned a cotton wick soaked in oil: the show lasts only as long as the oil the patron supplies. Likewise, a worker or helper gives service in step with what the payer contributes, no more and no less.

Better to face a hail of stones than to run away.

The saying prefers enduring harm to the shame of running away. Being pelted with thrown stones or other missiles hurts, yet the one under attack judges that pain more bearable than the dishonor that flight would bring.

If it is coming your way, rest—resting is worthwhile; if it is going away, rest—chasing after it is a loss.

The saying pictures an unnamed thing that either moves toward a person or moves away from them. While it is on its way, sitting still does no damage; even rest counts as a kind of profit, because the approach continues whether or not one stirs.

He fancies himself the fine cluster on the vine and everyone else the cheap loose grapes.

The saying ridicules a conceited person who acts as if he were the choice cluster still on the vine, while everyone else is فراطة: grapes fallen loose from their bunches and sold for next to nothing. Here عامل means posing as, not a worker, and فراطة means loose grapes, not small change.

The mouse couldn't even fit into its hole, so they tied a big rock to its tail.

The saying pokes fun at a foolish remedy: when something is already too narrow or overloaded to cope, people make it bigger or heavier instead of easing the strain. A mouse that cannot squeeze into its own burrow has no chance once a long, heavy rock hangs from its tail.

Like a meeting of crows: cawing when it opens and cawing when it closes.

The saying compares a group of people to a flock of crows gathered together, whose only sound is kāk, an imitation of the crow's call. From the first moment of their meeting to the last, all that comes out is noise. The comparison targets assemblies dominated by shouting and clamor instead of discussion.

'I'll give it to you tomorrow'—and how many days that promise has swallowed!

A promise phrased as 'I'll give it to you tomorrow' has no natural end point. The opening exclamation, meaning 'how many!', stresses how many days such a pledge has folded away. The image is of time used up by waiting, not of a single delay, while the pledge stays unfulfilled and the deadline keeps moving.

What was agreed must be handed over.

The saying holds that whatever has been made a condition of an arrangement is already fixed and owed. Once terms are settled, the obligation stands, and no amount of pleading or maneuvering will make it disappear.

Every rooster crows loudest on its own dunghill.

On home ground, a person has standing and a voice, and feels bold enough to raise it. Like a rooster crowing loudly from the rubbish heap it calls its own, anyone may speak with confidence and authority in the small territory where they belong.

Good-looking, cheap, and of fine stock as well.

The saying praises an item or animal that brings together three welcome traits at once: it looks good, it costs little, and it comes from a sound, genuine line or make. Low price is not taken as a sign of poor quality here.

Such a fervent funeral, and all for a dead dog.

The saying mocks lavish grief, ceremony, or devotion spent on someone who never deserved it. The funeral is 'hot' in the sense of heated, intense mourning and commotion, not physical temperature, while naming the deceased a dog reveals how little the honored figure is worth.

The camel couldn't get up under its load, and someone said, 'Hobble it!'

The picture is of a camel so weighed down that it cannot get to its feet, and of a bystander whose answer is to call for its leg to be tied. Hobbling exists to keep an animal from straying, yet here it is ordered for a creature that is already going nowhere.

A living comes to those who are quick on their feet.

The saying holds that rizq—livelihood, sustenance, and provision broadly, often with a sense of what is allotted to a person, not merely money—rewards those who are quick, active, and ready to move. Such provision favors energetic people, so anyone hoping to secure it must stay alert and get going rather than wait around.

A human eye is never satisfied until the grave's earth fills it.

The proverb treats greed as a permanent human trait. However much a person gains, their gaze stays fixed on what they still lack, and the hunger never settles while they are alive.

They asked the camel to play the pipe, and he answered: 'I have neither lips pressed together nor fingers set apart.'

The image is of a camel told to play a reed pipe. Its answer points to its own body: a thick lip that cannot purse around a mouthpiece and a solid hoof with no separate, spread fingers to cover the holes. The fingers it lacks are divided ones, not skilled ones. The request fails before it begins.

The month still has thirty days, and folks have known each other for ages.

The proverb deflates someone who has grown arrogant or puts on grand airs while coming from modest or lowly roots. It reminds them that their background is common knowledge among those around them, so any attempt to appear better than they are will not succeed.

Join a funeral if you must, but stay out of arranging a marriage.

The saying warns against serving as an intermediary in a marriage. If the couple later quarrel or prove incompatible, the person who brought the match together may become a target of blame from one side or the other.

Reproaching a petty person only makes them more conceited.

The saying warns that criticism does not always produce shame or reform. It portrays a person in disparaging terms as someone whose reproach may instead feed pride and make them act still more arrogantly.

When hands join together, they become more formidable.

The saying expresses the force created when people act together. Coordinated effort can achieve an effect that one person, working alone, would be less able to produce.

It is wiser to walk away from anything that brings no good.

The proverb recommends letting go when continued attachment offers no good. It presents departure as the sounder choice, rather than persisting with what lacks a positive quality or outcome.

Juha has the first claim to the meat of his own bull.

Possession brings precedence: whoever owns something stands first in line for it, ahead of every other person. The saying packs this principle of rightful claim into a short, memorable form.

Better to fool around with cats than to sit idle.

The saying ranks any activity, however trivial, above complete inactivity; its ولا means 'rather than,' not 'nor.' Even a pastime as pointless as fooling around with cats is preferable to sitting with empty hands, because idleness itself is seen as the greater harm.

Tobacco but no coffee: a sultan with no fur cloak.

At its core, the saying judges a host who hands a visitor tobacco to smoke, whether rolled or in a pipe, yet serves no coffee. Such a welcome counts as only half done: the guest receives one sign of generosity while the companion gesture that should accompany it is missing, so the hospitality falls short.

The one who looks lost in a daze is hiding a head full of schemes.

The proverb warns that a person who appears dreamy, inattentive, or gentle may in fact be calculating and crafty. A calm, unassuming exterior is treated as a possible mask, and the listener is told not to trust it at face value. Though the subject is grammatically masculine, the warning applies regardless of gender.

Break the bundle apart and the burden gets lighter.

A heavy load that feels impossible as one mass becomes manageable once it is broken up. Splitting a burden into smaller portions, or spreading it across several bearers, takes away much of its weight and the dread of lifting it.

When transport providers compete, passengers get a better deal.

The proverb says that when people who provide the same service quarrel or compete to lower their charges, those using the service benefit. Here the image concerns people who hire out donkeys, not the animals themselves.

However you look on me, my dear, that is how I will look on you.

The saying expresses a principle of mirrored conduct: the speaker promises to regard and treat the other person exactly as that person regards and treats them. Seeing stands for esteem, attention and behaviour, not physical sight, so the line turns an exchange of glances into a pledge of matching response.

Take what little the poor have and heap it onto your own riches.

The saying mocks a rich person who strips the poor of the little they hold in order to swell an already ample fortune. Its ironic command imitates the exploiter's voice to condemn that greed, not to recommend it; 'their poverty' stands for the scant means of those who have little.

I married her off to be rid of her, and back she came with her husband in tow.

The speaker, a parent who arranged a daughter's marriage, hoped she would live elsewhere and no longer need supporting. Instead she comes back bringing 'the other one', her new husband, so the household now feeds two mouths where it once fed one.

Give me a warm welcome; you needn't feed me.

The saying holds that how a person is received matters more than what they are given. Here 'meet' means receiving someone with a warm, cheerful welcome. It does not reject food or hospitality; rather, a smiling welcome outranks a generous table offered with a scowl, which leaves the guest feeling unwanted.

A woman who always ferrets out and carries gossip.

This traditionally used saying portrays a woman who persistently seeks out other people’s affairs, especially matters they would rather keep hidden. She is imagined as unusually skilled at discovering private news and making it known.

A burden becomes manageable when it is shared.

The saying advises distributing a difficult task among several people rather than leaving it to one person. What is too heavy for an individual may become possible once each participant takes a portion.

Better to face a lion than to place your safety in the hands of a person.

The saying warns that human treachery can be more dangerous than an obvious physical threat. A lion is feared openly, whereas a person may conceal harmful intentions behind apparent trust or friendship.

He has one eye on Heaven and the other on Hell.

The saying pictures a person whose two eyes look in opposite directions, one toward Paradise and the other toward the Fire, the usual Arabic name for Hell. It describes someone pulled two ways at once, unable to settle on either path because their attention stays divided.

A snake can only breed a snakelet.

The proverb claims that wicked parents produce children who turn out just as wicked. A venomous creature, it suggests, can only breed more venom, so a parent's bad character is expected to reappear in the next generation. This reflects the saying's own judgment, not an established fact about inheritance.

Sweep the threshing floor bare, but never empty the storeroom.

This is advice about where thoroughness pays and where restraint does. Qarqar here means clearing something down to its bottom, and jurn is the threshing floor. Grain left in the open is at the mercy of passersby, so any scrap there is forfeited; grain behind a storeroom door keeps its worth, and a held-back portion hedges against lean days.

You can't even swim yet, and you're already challenging people to a diving match?

The saying mocks a person who rushes into competition at an advanced skill while still lacking the elementary one it depends on. Diving presupposes swimming, so contending with others underwater before staying afloat is shown to be absurd and self-defeating.

Your portion is right there in the pot. It's just that nobody can find the ladle.

The saying ridicules a person who admits that someone else is entitled to something but then invents a pretext for not handing it over. The claim is acknowledged in words, while a trivial, conveniently timed obstacle is blamed for the fact that nothing ever arrives.