No. 47 "I'm eating the head, knowing what's within it." Said when doing something you know you'll hate.

Ain’t that the truth.

"Whoever closes his eyes to evil men sleeps with adders and vipers within his shirt." — Abū l-Fatḥ al-Bustī (Afghanistan, d. 1010)

@arabicproverbs.bsky.social, you might appreciate this fragment from the Papyrus Museum in Vienna

No. 35 "Affliction is attached to speech." al-balāʾ muwakkalun bi-l-manṭiq The generally accepted sense of this is words have a way of becoming reality, so one should be careful with what they say.

No. 34 "Beneath a gentle exterior you have a stubborn streak." inna taḥta ṭirrīqatika la-ʿindāʾwa

Egyptian Arabic proverb of the day: "It's tiring to look up." اللي يبص لفوق يتعب illī yibuṣṣ li-fōʾ yitʿab If you constantly compare your life to those who have more than you, you will live in a state of perpetual exhaustion and dissatisfaction.

Anus proverb of the day

i'm sure you've checked them out, but the excerpts from al-Zaǧǧālī and Alonso del Castillo's collections of proverbs in Corriente's 2013 Andalusi Arabic grammar are really fun yaʕṭí Alláh alfúl liman ma ʕíndu iḍrasáyn 'God gives beans to those who have no teeth'

No. 33 "Sometimes a liar tells the truth " inna al-kadhūba qad yaṣduq

Those who seek to comprehend great truths will learn a lesson watching shadows move: shades and shapes that pass and fade — they all cease to be but their mover remains.

No. 32 "The staff comes from the little stick." inna l-ʿaṣā min al-ʿuṣayya Great things come from small ones.

No. 31 "My sons were born in my life's summer — while the man whose sons were born in his spring thrives." inna baniyya ṣayfiyyūn aflaḥa man kāna lahū ribʿiyyūn Said when regretting things that have passed one by.

English proverb: "More haste, less speed" Algerian proverb: اغضب تعطل ʊγṣeb taʕṭəl ambiguous between: = hurry and you get delayed = force it and you'll break it (The list is about 40% good, 40% indifferent - but 9-9-6 is such bad advice that it makes the rest irrelevant. Esp if you marry early!)

No. 30 "Despising an ignoble man is a kindness." inna l-hawāna lil-laʾīmi marʾamah The idea is basically don't cast pearls before swine.

Arabic proverb of the day with pretty exact parallels in Irish and Latin: "Silence is the sign of consent" الصمت علامة الرضى al-ṣamt ʿalāmat al-riḍāʾ Irish: Con·éitet nád fúacair. "Whoever does not denounce accepts" Latin: Qui tacet consentit. "He who is silent consents"

Three dog proverbs: 🐕‍🦺🐕 Egyptian: "When the dogs bark no one replies to them." لما الكلاب بتهوهو ما حدش يرد عليهم Lamma el-kilāb bi-thawhaw ma-ḥaddish yirudd ʿalayhum Don't demean yourself by responding to low insults. ~"Don't wrestle with a pig; you both get dirty, but the pig likes it."

No. 28 "To stay on the safe side it's best left alone." There are two readings al-Maydānī offers. 1. It refers to finding lost property. 2. It refers to the things of this world as in the verse: The soul loves this world knowing full well to be on the safe side it's best left alone.

"Fart in the mosque and you will be famous." This is said of one who is eager to gain a reputation even if it is a bad one.

No. 27 "Power [over another] dispels the desire for vengeance." inna al-maqdirata tudhhibu l-ḥafīẓa Once upon a time a prominent man of Quraysh sought revenge against another man but once he had him in his power he quoted this proverb and released him.

No. 26 "In the course of speaking there are opportunities to avoid lying." inna fī l-maʿārīḍi la-mandūḥatan ʿani l-kadhib This contradicts those who claim it is sometimes necessary to lie.

Egyptian Arabic proverb of the day: "Idle hands are ritually impure." ~ Idle hands are the devil's plaything. الايد البطلانة نجسة el-ʾīd el-baṭlāna nigsa

We all know that one person (or camel, as the case may be…).

A variation in Moroccan Darija: lli ma kay yǝfhǝm b-lɣǝmzaʰ yǝfhǝm b ḍḍǝṛbaʰ اللي ما كاي يفهم ب الغمزة يفهم ب الضربة (he who does not get the wink gets the stick)

No. 25 "The one who cannot take a hint is a fool." inna man lā yaʿrifu al-waḥya aḥmaq

No. 24 "When lying is the best of two options, those are both bad options." inna khaṣlatayni khayruhumā al-kadhibu la-khaṣlatā sūʾ Said when someone makes an excuse for something they've done by lying.

No. 23 "There's something beyond the hill." inna warāʾa al-akamati mā warāʾahā The story is a servant wanted to meet her lover beyond a local hill but the people she worked for gave her too much work and she couldn't go and said this. Said when one reveals something they had kept secret.

No. 22 "You still have the night, so eat dinner." inna ʿalayka ǧuršan fataʿaššah This is said to encourage someone with a task to do to take it easy and not push themselves too hard.

Egyptian Arabic proverb of the day: "Cowardice is the master of all virtues." الجبن سيد الأخلاق el-gubn sayyid el-akhlāʾ

Egyptian Arabic idiom of the day: "A bean doesn't get wet in his mouth" I.e., he can't keep a secret ما بتتبلش في بقه فولة mā btitballish fī buʾʾuh fūla

No. 21 "When there is already disaster, calamity strikes." inna al-dawāhiya fī l-āfāti tahtarisu This means when one bad thing happens, other misfortunes tend to follow all at once; ~ when it rains, it pours.

"When a liar enters the city gate, at his back is a finger, at his front is a finger." - Sumerian proverb The fingers, presumably, are pointing at the liar, who has lied to those behind him and will lie to those in front of him. Source: cdli.earth/artifacts/34...

No. 20 "Through just a narrow opening great calamities may be seen within." inna l-khaṣāṣa yurā fī jawfihā al-raqam The meaning is that something momentous may be hidden within something modest or trivial.

If you’re wondering whether or not you should do the thing — here’s your sign:

"If the one speaking is insane, the one listening should be reasonable." —Omani proverb idhā kāna al-mutakallim majnūn yakūn al-mustamiʿ ʿāqil In other words, don't believe everything that you hear.

No. 19 "Excuses are always mixed with falsehood." inna al-maʿādhīra yashūbuhā al-kadhib This basically means that you shouldn't make excuses because they're always dishonest.

No. 18 "Affection makes you fear the worst." inna al-shafīqa bi-sūʾi ẓannin mūlaʿ Usually sūʾ al-ẓann means assuming someone else has bad intentions but al-Maydānī says here it means worrying about something befalling a companion as a mother worries for her children.

No. 17 🐎 "Even a fine steed may stumble." inna al-jawāda qad yaʿthur Said when someone held in high standing makes a mistake. ~ Even Milton nods.

No. 16 "Love makes a rider's butt slide." inna al-hawā la-yamīlu bi-sti r-rākib Someone who is in love will incline to the object of their affection, beautiful or not. Another proverb explains this one: "Where the heart loves the foot falls" ilā ḥaythu yahwā l-qalbu tahwī bihi r-rijl

Speaking of which anyone who wants to change their life I'm now accepting applications from potential clients. Guaranteed life change in one direction or another.

No. 15 "God truly has soldiers and honey is among them." inna lillāhi junūdan minhā l-ʿasal The Umayyad caliph Muawiya said this on hearing that Malik al-Ashtar (a general of Muawiya's rival Ali ibn Abi Talib) had died after drinking poisoned honey. It's an expression of schadenfreude.

No. 14 "The mother-in-law obsesses over the daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law is obsessively resentful." inna al-ḥamāta ʾuliʿat bi-l-kannah wa-ʾuliʿat kannatuhā bi-l-ẓinnah This one is pretty self-explanatory.

No. 13 "Iron is split by iron." inna l-ḥadīda bi-l-ḥadīdi yuflaḥ When confronting a difficulty, one must seek help from something or someone of strength commensurate to the difficulty.

No. 12 "Even in evil there is choice" inna fi sh-sharri khiyāran This means that when it comes to bad stuff, there are lesser evils to choose from.

No. 11 "Someone who doesn't get hurt isn't deceived" (~ It's a victimless crime) inna l-muʿāfā ghayru makhdūʿ It's said when someone who's being tricked supposedly isn't harmed if they're not aware of the duplicity. It ostensibly originates in a pre-Islamic story of sexual deception and murder:

"Death comes from above for the coward." inna l-jabbāna ḥatfuhū min fawqih Said on the impossibility of avoiding one's fate.

"He had a long penis" in classical Arabic — kāna ayruhu ṭawīlan — was a way of saying "he had many male children". But what if you want to actually talk about a long penis? There is a single word, uyārī, meaning "having a large penis."

No. 9 🪡 "The cure for a rip is to sew it up." inna dawāʾa sh-shaqqi an taḥūṣahū Apparently this is actually just said when someone tears something and patches it.

Probably the coolest X stem you'll see today: استنسر /istansara/ "become eagle-like" 🦅