Arabic proverbs

A man who treats his wife with honor will see others treat her with respect as well.

The saying teaches that the respect a husband shows his wife shapes the regard she receives from others. Public esteem begins with the dignity granted to her within her own household.

Each person cools a bite only as big as their own mouth can take.

The picture is of someone blowing on hot food before eating. Nobody cools a chunk too large to fit between their lips; the piece they hold up is already sized to the mouth that will receive it. The image grounds the lesson in an ordinary moment at the table.

He can't manage it bare-handed or with a tool.

The saying describes a person who is useless at work by every means. Hands are the most basic way of getting a job done, and the sickle stands for any tool or aid that should make up for lacking strength or skill, yet this person gets nothing done with either.

If you carry the waterskin, expect to get wet.

A person who takes on responsibility for a matter must expect to bear some of its inconvenience, risk, or unpleasant consequences. The burden does not remain entirely separate from the one who carries it.

If you miss a state appointment, stay close enough to share in its prestige.

The saying urges attachment to government office: even if a desired post is missed, one should remain close to its sphere of influence. It presents public employment as a source of honor in itself, rather than something to be abandoned.

A cat won't run from a house where a wedding feast is underway.

The picture is a household holding a wedding, with food everywhere; the 'joy' in the wording means this festive celebration, not general happiness. A cat lured by the scraps keeps coming back however often it is shooed off or struck, because what it gains matters more to it than the rough handling it receives.

"Crow, give me a date." "Sorry, these go only to those fate assigns them to." "Well, the one fate assigned to me is the one you're holding."

In this short exchange, someone asks a crow for one of its dates. The crow refuses, saying such portions (qisam) go only to whoever they are allotted to. The asker retorts that his own allotted portion (qismati) is the very date in front of the crow, turning the crow's own word against it.

Listen, people: a day is coming for you too.

The saying warns people not to be lulled by their present situation. Whatever ease, standing or advantage they enjoy now is temporary, because circumstances shift, and a different day is already on its way to them.

Luck stays with the people it belongs to.

The proverb pictures a person's fortune as a constant companion that cannot be left behind. Wherever someone goes, the same luck travels along, so a change of location brings no fresh start.

His mother sells bread to scrape by, yet he swaggers about like a pasha.

This traditional saying ridicules someone who puts on airs of rank or importance despite circumstances portrayed as modest. It contrasts a hard-pressed household livelihood with the person's grand manner, presenting the display as false or inflated.

The pain lasts a moment, but the delight lasts a long time.

Read with ʿajab, wonder or delight, as its final word, the saying sets the shortness of suffering against the length of what follows. A sharp pain soon passes, but the pleasure of being well again lasts far longer, so a brief hardship is worth bearing for the good that comes after it.

Just like neighborhood kids: a bit of piping brings them flocking, and a raised stick sends them running.

The saying likens certain adults to the small children of a residential lane or quarter. Such children come running when someone plays a simple folk reed pipe and flee the moment someone waves a stick. The image mocks people who are easily drawn by trifles and just as easily driven off.

"This onion is sweeter than honey!" "Fine, there it is; let people look and judge."

The saying mocks a person who praises something in terms its obvious nature contradicts, boastfully exclaiming that an onion tastes sweeter than honey. The answer, "there it is," is no question: it points at the visible thing and declines to argue, leaving anyone who looks to decide, so the boast falls apart.

Better your own limping donkey than a camel borrowed from your cousin.

The saying ranks a modest thing that truly belongs to you above a finer thing you would have to borrow; its 'wala' marks preference, 'rather than', not flat refusal. A crippled donkey of your own still serves you, while a paternal cousin's sturdy camel comes with strings attached, so independence outweighs the apparent advantage of better borrowed means.

He swears to me and I take his word, then I watch how he actually carries on and can only stare in disbelief.

The saying describes a person who swears firmly about something and is believed by the listener. Later, his actual conduct and circumstances turn out quite different from what he vowed, leaving the listener baffled and incredulous, not admiring, at the gap.

A person facing an unavoidable ordeal cannot sleep.

Someone who knows a painful trial is coming finds no rest. The certainty that the hardship cannot be escaped, together with dread of how it will feel, keeps the mind awake before the difficulty begins.

When the animal isn't yours, you act as though its bones were made of iron.

The saying exposes a double standard: people protect what they own but feel little restraint with what belongs to someone else. Here “property” means livestock, not money. A borrowed beast is driven hard because the borrower bears no loss, so they treat it as if its bones were iron: an ironic picture of their carelessness, not real toughness.

Where there is a relative, there is an enemy.

The proverb holds that kinship is no shield against hostility. Whoever has relatives also has people close enough to resent, envy, or oppose them. The wording allows two readings: any relative may become an enemy, or having kin brings enmity with it. Both readings place the hostility within the family.

A young man rises on his own good fortune, not on his father's or his grandfather's name.

The saying holds that a person's standing in life comes from the fortune or luck allotted to them, not from personal effort and not from the reputation or nobility of their father and grandfather. Distinguished ancestry neither guarantees success nor stands in for it.

With time on his hands, the Devil sets about tearing up the dis.

This proverb is aimed at a wicked person who, once nothing else occupies him, turns his full energy toward evil and toward corrupting whatever he can reach. For such a person, free time simply becomes time devoted to wrongdoing.

All we brought back from our years abroad was a twisted jaw.

The speaker spent a period away from home, not necessarily an exile, hoping to come back richer and better situated, yet returns carrying nothing but a crooked jaw. The image contrasts the hoped-for reward of a hard sojourn with the bitter, even humiliating, outcome actually brought home.

"Spare a little charity, sir!" Came the answer: "Your 'sir' is so poor he eats the peel too."

The saying pictures a beggar asking a passerby for alms, only to be told that the man he calls 'sir' is so needy he eats his food peel and all, wasting nothing. Someone in that state has nothing spare to hand out, however politely he is asked.

Ask a hungry man what one times one makes, and he'll tell you: a loaf of bread.

The saying mocks how a strong need takes over the mind. A person gripped by hunger cannot treat even a child's arithmetic question on its own terms. Whatever is asked, his reply comes back to food, because nothing else has room in his thoughts.

Let my children be the price paid for me; as long as I live, I stay a nail in my enemies' side.

The saying gives a grieving parent a way to bear the death of children. It presents the loss as a sacrifice made on the parent's behalf, a consoling outlook rather than indifference toward the children, so continued life is seen as purchased at great cost, not simply as being left behind.

There's no wedding and no bridal procession, so what's all this charm and polish for?

The saying questions someone who has dressed up or made themselves especially attractive when nothing calls for it. A wedding and the festive procession escorting a bride stand for the obvious occasions that would justify such care, and both are said to be missing.

When the Nile rises around you in a flood, put your child under your feet.

The proverb depicts self-preservation in an extreme image: when danger is overwhelming, one puts one's own safety ahead of even a child. It expresses a person’s excessive preference for the self over every other claim or attachment.

However hard you chase after a livelihood, you cannot obtain more than the share destined for you.

The saying sets a vivid picture against a sober limit: someone dashing about with the frantic speed of a wild animal, and a portion of provision that remains exactly the size it was always going to be.

The mere sight of warmth is a comfort.

A person suffering from the cold notices a fire or a sheltered spot where they could warm up, and seeing it is enough to put them at ease. The saying links that sense of comfort to the eye that finds the warmth.

"Imbaba's lupines beat almonds for sweetness!" "Sure, that's just something said to make the poor feel better."

The saying sets up a dialogue. One voice claims that cheap lupine beans from Imbaba, a Nile-side town (more formally Anbaba) known for soaking the bitter beans in the river before boiling and salting them, outdo costly almonds. A second voice deflates this as mere comfort for the poor, who eat lupines because almonds are beyond their means.

Like a raw hand aboard a boat: all he adds is his own weight.

The saying pictures a new, inexperienced boatman, ignorant of the work rather than foolish in general, who contributes nothing to sailing yet still adds his weight to the vessel. His presence does not simply fail to help; it burdens the boat and its crew, turning a supposed helper into dead load.

The quietest charity is given through buying and selling.

The proverb holds that the most discreet form of almsgiving happens through commerce. It does not treat all trade as charity: a person who wants to help someone can deliberately ease the terms of a sale or purchase with them, so the gift is folded into the deal and never announced.

We die and come back to life, and it's still Yahya's wedding!

Here farah means a wedding celebration rather than simply joy. The saying pictures people so wrapped up in one wedding that their entire existence revolves around it. Dying and reviving stands for the full cycle of sleeping and waking, not literal death; every day and night passes inside that single concern, leaving no room for other talk or tasks.

Whoever knows his own measure lives at ease.

The saying holds that anyone who has an honest, realistic sense of their own abilities, worth, and limits is spared much inner turmoil. Its focus is self-awareness rather than formal social rank. Such a person does not chase what lies far beyond them, and so avoids the distress that follows.

A thief has no feet to stand his ground; he bolts at the first sound.

The saying pictures a thief as lacking legs to plant firmly and stay where he is. The missing legs do not make him slow or immobile; rather, without footing he cannot hold his ground. The faintest noise or rumor is enough to send him running at once, so he never lingers.

When he reaches the knot, even the carpenter gets stuck.

The saying pictures a carpenter, someone whose trade is working with wood, brought to a standstill at a knot. The knot may be read as a hard spot in the material itself or, more broadly, as the tangled crux of a job. Either way, it marks the point where his skill stops carrying him forward.

Many hands make the work easier.

The saying encourages people to cooperate: when each person contributes, a task becomes more manageable and support is shared rather than left to one individual.

Put off a quarrel until tomorrow, and by then it will have blown over.

The saying claims that anger and quarrels rarely survive a night's delay; the trouble it names is a flare of temper or a dispute between people, not wickedness in a moral sense. A clash that feels pressing and bitter in the moment usually softens once the people involved separate, rest, and return to it the next day with cooler heads.

'Steer clear of trouble and run a ditch between you and it.' 'I'll do that, and sing it on its way besides.'

The saying urges avoiding trouble by every possible means. The first speaker advises keeping away from evil and putting a water channel between yourself and it as a barrier. The second speaker accepts this and adds one more step: singing to the evil as well, so that it goes past peacefully and leaves you alone.

He left for the pilgrimage and ended up settling there for good.

The image is of a traveler who set out for a pilgrimage meant to be a round trip, then stayed on as a resident beside one of the holy sanctuaries, Mecca or Medina, instead of heading home. Here جاور means settling near the sanctuary, not merely becoming someone's neighbor.

He's like a monkey: scared of his own shadow.

The saying describes someone so timid and jumpy that even the most ordinary sights alarm them. It draws on a traditional belief that a monkey panics at its own reflection or shadow; such a person likewise recoils from things that pose no threat at all.

No need to tell the father: the next little one is already holding this one's hand.

The saying is a consoling response to a miscarriage. The unnamed 'he' is the lost child, and his 'brother' is a future baby rather than a living sibling, pictured as already holding his hand. This suggests the mother will soon conceive again, so the loss need not weigh heavily on anyone.

Talk is like a woollen rope: the more you pull on it, the longer it gets.

Conversation has no fixed length of its own. Like a rope spun from wool, which gives and lengthens whenever it is tugged, talk keeps extending as long as someone keeps drawing it out, with one point leading naturally into the next.

Like a pigeon that settles in one dovecote, then flies off to the next.

The saying describes a person whose warmth toward others never lasts. Like a pigeon that grows attached to one dovecote, settles there, then moves to the next, such a person stays with one companion a while and then moves on. Here يغوى means growing fond of a place, not going astray, and برج is a dovecote.

We get by on each day's livelihood as it comes, and what falls to us is God's to decide.

The saying describes a life lived on whatever each day brings, with nothing put aside. What comes in today is spent today, so there is no reserve, and tomorrow's needs rest on tomorrow's God-given provision rather than on income alone.

The needy at your own door come before the needy who drift through.

The saying sets two needy people side by side: one who lives in your own courtyard or quarter, and one who roams from place to place. It ranks the first above the second, holding that help and generosity should begin with the poor who are closest to you.

God protect the back of my head; it has never been struck by anyone.

The proverb praises someone who treats others well and does not put themselves in situations that invite humiliation. It presents living free from others’ harm as connected with tactful, considerate dealings.

See how he is doing before you ask him how he is.

Before putting a question to someone about how they are, take in what is plainly visible about them. Their situation, once noticed, frequently supplies the answer on its own, so the question may turn out to be needless.

If it weren't for my neighbor, I'd have burst with bitterness.

The saying credits a nearby friend with keeping the speaker from being consumed by suppressed fury and heartache. Without someone to listen and console, the pent-up bitterness would have grown unbearable. The burst gallbladder is a figure for that overwhelming anger and bottled-up grief, a kind of death from sheer vexation.

Like a Qaramani pilgrim's knotted purse, it won't come undone until Mecca.

The picture is a pilgrim from the distant land of Qaraman whose money pouch is cinched and knotted so firmly that it stays shut for the whole long journey to the Hijaz. It is opened only on arrival in Mecca, when the coins are finally needed. 'Qaramani' names a place of origin, not a person or an insult.

If someone leaves you behind, leave them behind as well.

The saying advises answering neglect in kind. When a person walks away from you, stops caring, or drops the relationship, you should not chase them or cling to the bond; release them as they released you. This can read as endorsing tit-for-tat coldness rather than simple self-respect.