Timely action

Once the feast has passed, it is too late to shape the holiday cakes.

The saying criticizes starting an undertaking only when the moment that made it useful has gone by. It emphasizes that timing is part of the task itself, so a delayed effort can fail even if the work is eventually done.

Letting an animal roam unattended is acting as though you do not care what you would receive for its loss.

The saying reproaches carelessness that exposes something valuable to loss. When a person neglects ordinary safeguards, the harm that follows is presented as the likely outcome of their own failure to take care.

If your neighbor plants before you, make sure you water first.

When another person moves first in one stage of work, do not assume the result is settled. Respond promptly through another useful stage of effort that can still strengthen your own outcome.

If your chance at marriage is within reach, seize it—even if it means taking your sister’s husband.

In this traditional saying, “fortune” means a husband or marriage prospect rather than luck in general. It urges a woman to seize a marital opportunity quickly rather than let it pass her by.

Take what is available, even if it is not ideal.

In a 1949 Arabic proverb collection, the saying is presented as urging acceptance of a modest opportunity at hand rather than waiting for a better one that may never arrive. An imperfect, immediate gain can be wiser than delay that loses every chance.

If you did not care enough to weep for me while I was alive, do not shed tears for me when I die.

The saying rebukes people who ignore someone’s suffering in life but display grief only after death. It presents such late sorrow as empty because genuine care should appear when it can still bring comfort or help.

Any animal that won't fill up on clover in Kiahk, curse it to ruin.

Historically, this farm saying concerns livestock grazing clover in Kiahk, a month of the Coptic calendar. It urges making full use of something beneficial while its season lasts; its deliberately harsh curse intensifies the warning against letting that favorable moment slip by.

One little spark can burn down the whole neighborhood.

The saying warns against dismissing small beginnings. Its fire image is figurative: a tiny spark looks harmless, yet left alone it can set an entire residential quarter ablaze, so what starts as a trifle may grow into widespread harm.

She played hard to get when they proposed, but regretted it after they withdrew.

It warns that refusing something one actually wants merely to appear proud or difficult can cause a missed opportunity. Once others withdraw their offer, regret may come too late to change the result.

The professional mourner showed up a year and a half too late to lament.

The saying criticizes an action taken so late that it cannot serve its intended purpose. It applies to belated help, sympathy, attention, or remedies offered after the moment when they could have made a difference.

If someone will not wait for you, make sure you arrive before they do.

The saying urges advance preparation when another person is unlikely to delay for you. Rather than counting on accommodation, one should act early enough to avoid missing an opportunity, appointment, or desired outcome.