باب النجّار مخلع. (baab in-naggaar maxalla3.) The carpenter’s door is falling apart. (Used to criticize someone who tells other people how to do things but doesn’t apply his advice to himself.) “It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists (Jews) do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.” ― Albert Einstein
قليل البخت يلاقي العظم في الكرشة. ('aliil il-baxt yilaa'i l-3aDm fil-kirša.)
The unlucky person finds bones in his tripe dinner. (You can't escape bad luck.) See also the variation قليل البخت يتكعبل في السديري ('aliil il-baxt yitka3bil fis-sideiri), "The unlucky person trips over [his own] waistcoat/vest."
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home”
― Mahatma Gandhi
لا يلدغ المؤمن من جحر مرتين. (la yuldaġ il-mo'men min goHr marratein.)
The believer is not bitten from the same hole twice. (Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.)
“Our shouting is louder than our actions,
Our swords are taller than us,
This is our tragedy.
In short
We wear the cape of civilisation
But our souls live in the stone age”
― Nizar Qabbani
خسارة قريبة أحسن من مكسب بعيد. (xosaara qariiba aHsan min maksab ba3iid.)
A loss soon is better than a victory much later. (It's better to cut your losses and admit defeat quickly rather than stick it out and eventually win a victory that cost you a lot.)
شحات ونزهي. (šaHHaat we-nozahi.)
A beggar but acting like a rich man. (Used to describe someone who's in no position to be picky but is still acting like he can set the terms of whatever bargain etc. is going on. Sort of like the equivalent of "Beggars can't be choosers," but in reverse.)
“تذكروا أنكم أبناء من خضعت ... لسيفهم دول الرومان و العجم
و الشرق دان لهم و الغرب دان لهم ... و تحت أخمصهم كم طأطأت قمم
سل أرض ” أندلس ” إن كنت تجهلنا ... و أهل أندلس عنا بما علموا
آثارنا باقيات في مرابعهم ... و علمنا ناطق و الفضل و الشيم
أن يزعموا أننا لسنا نماثلهم ... في كل مكرمة – يا كذب ما زعموا
تنبهوا و انهضوا فالحق مهتضم ... من نام عن حقه أودى به العدمُ”
― عمر حمد, ديوان الشهيد عمر حمد
لبس البوصة، تبقى عروسة. (labbis il-buuSa, tib'a 3aruusa.)
Dressing up a stick turns it into a bride. (Clothes make the man.)
“Then all at once our personal and political quarrels were made very abruptly to converge. In the special edition of the London Review of Books published to mark the events of September 11, 2001, Edward painted a picture of an almost fascist America where Arab and Muslim citizens were being daily terrorized by pogroms, these being instigated by men like Paul Wolfowitz who had talked of 'ending' the regimes that sheltered Al Quaeda. Again, I could hardly credit that these sentences were being produced by a cultured person, let alone printed by a civilized publication.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
تأتي الرياح بما لا تشتهي السفن (ta'ti r-riyaaH bi-ma la taštahi s-sufun)
Winds do not blow as the ships wish. (You can't always get what you want.)
ديل الكلب عمره مايتعدل (deil ik-kalb 3omru mayet3edel)
The dog's tail will never straighten out. (A leopard doesn't change its spots.)
الكفن مالوش جيوب (il-kafan maluuš giyuub)
The shroud has no pockets. (You can't take it with you.)
ابن الوزّ عوّام. (ibn il-wazz 3awwam.)
The son of a goose is a swimmer. (Like father, like son.)
“Inevitably came the time when he angrily repudiated his former paladin Yasser Arafat. In fact, he described him to me as 'the Palestinian blend of Marshal Petaín and Papa Doc.' But the main problem, alas, remained the same. In Edward's moral universe, Arafat could at last be named as a thug and a practitioner of corruption and extortion. But he could only be identified as such to the extent that he was now and at last aligned with an American design. Thus the only truly unpardonable thing about 'The Chairman' was his readiness to appear on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton in 1993. I have real knowledge and memory of this, because George Stephanopoulos—whose father's Orthodox church in Ohio and New York had kept him in touch with what was still a predominantly Christian Arab-American opinion—called me more than once from the White House to help beseech Edward to show up at the event. 'The feedback we get from Arab-American voters is this: If it's such a great idea, why isn't Said signing off on it?' When I called him, Edward was grudging and crabby. 'The old man [Arafat] has no right to sign away land.' Really? Then what had the Algiers deal been all about? How could two states come into being without mutual concessions on territory?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
شحات وعايز رغيف. (šaHHaat we-3aayiz riġiif.)
A beggar, and he wants a (whole) loaf. (If you're relying on other people's generosity, you should just be grateful for whatever you can get instead of complaining you didn't get more.)
عمر الشقي بقي. (3omr iš-ša'i ba'i.)
The wicked or naughty live longer. (Can be used to hint that if you take risks, it'll pay off. Can also be used in a joking way; for example, if a friend was in a minor car accident and was uninjured, you could tell them, "3omr iš-ša'i ba'i.")
وقع في شر أعماله. (il-ġurbaal il-gediid luh šadda.)
The new sieve is taut. (A new broom sweeps clean.)
دخول الحمّام مش زي خروجه (duxuul il-Hammaam miš zayye xruugu)
Entering a bathroom isn't like leaving it. (It's easier to get yourself into a situation than it is to get out of it.)
“Long before it was known to me as a place where my ancestry was even remotely involved, the idea of a state for Jews (or a Jewish state; not quite the same thing, as I failed at first to see) had been 'sold' to me as an essentially secular and democratic one. The idea was a haven for the persecuted and the survivors, a democracy in a region where the idea was poorly understood, and a place where—as Philip Roth had put it in a one-handed novel that I read when I was about nineteen—even the traffic cops and soldiers were Jews. This, like the other emphases of that novel, I could grasp. Indeed, my first visit was sponsored by a group in London called the Friends of Israel. They offered to pay my expenses, that is, if on my return I would come and speak to one of their meetings.
I still haven't submitted that expenses claim. The misgivings I had were of two types, both of them ineradicable. The first and the simplest was the encounter with everyday injustice: by all means the traffic cops were Jews but so, it turned out, were the colonists and ethnic cleansers and even the torturers. It was Jewish leftist friends who insisted that I go and see towns and villages under occupation, and sit down with Palestinian Arabs who were living under house arrest—if they were lucky—or who were squatting in the ruins of their demolished homes if they were less fortunate. In Ramallah I spent the day with the beguiling Raimonda Tawil, confined to her home for committing no known crime save that of expressing her opinions. (For some reason, what I most remember is a sudden exclamation from her very restrained and respectable husband, a manager of the local bank: 'I would prefer living under a Bedouin muktar to another day of Israeli rule!' He had obviously spent some time thinking about the most revolting possible Arab alternative.) In Jerusalem I visited the Tutungi family, who could produce title deeds going back generations but who were being evicted from their apartment in the old city to make way for an expansion of the Jewish quarter. Jerusalem: that place of blood since remote antiquity. Jerusalem, over which the British and French and Russians had fought a foul war in the Crimea, and in the mid-nineteenth century, on the matter of which Christian Church could command the keys to some 'holy sepulcher.' Jerusalem, where the anti-Semite Balfour had tried to bribe the Jews with the territory of another people in order to seduce them from Bolshevism and continue the diplomacy of the Great War. Jerusalem: that pest-house in whose environs all zealots hope that an even greater and final war can be provoked. It certainly made a warped appeal to my sense of history.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
مافيش حلاوة من غير نار (mafiiš Halaawa min ġeir naar)
There's no dessert without fire (i.e. in the baking process). (You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.)
الغالي تمنه فيه (il-ġaali tamanu fiih)
You get what you pay for. (Expensive things are worth the price for their quality.)
إن سرقت، اسرق جمل، وإن عشقت، اعشق قمر (in sara't, isra' gamal, wa'in 3eše't, i3ša' 'amar)
If you steal, steal a camel, and if you love, love (someone as beautiful as) the moon. (If you're going to do something, go all out.)
“Based on the considerations of history, ancient history, and international axioms, the logic of following up a citizen with his shadow for the purpose of the demarcation of political frontiers of any state has been discounted for international conventions. For example the Arabs cannot ask Spain just because they were there some time in the past nor can they ask for any other area outside the frontiers of the Arab homeland”
― Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein on Current Events in Iraq
وقع في شر أعماله. (wi'i3 fi šarr a3maalu.)
He got entangled in the evil of his own doings. (He was hoisted by his own petard — fell into his own trap, was harmed by his own plan to harm someone else.)
المؤمن مصاب. (il-mo'men muSaab.)
The believer is afflicted. (The righteous always suffer.)
“Arab nationalism in its traditional form was the way in which secular Arab Christians like Edward had found and kept a place for themselves, while simultaneously avoiding the charge of being too 'Western.' It was very noticeable among the Palestinians that the most demonstrably 'extreme' nationalists—and Marxists—were often from Christian backgrounds. George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh used to be celebrated examples of this phenomenon, long before anyone had heard of the cadres of Hamas, or Islamic Jihad. There was an element of overcompensation involved, or so I came to suspect.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
اللى على راسه بطحة بيحصص عليها. (illi 3ala raasu baTHa biHaSSiS 3aleiha.)
Those who have an injury on their head keep checking it. (People who have a weakness show it.)
دوام الحال من المحال. (dawaam il-Haal min il-muHaal.)
Continuing the same state is impossible. (Nothing stays the same.)
اللى يشوف بلوة غيره تهون عليه بلوته. (illi yišuuf belwit ġeiru tihuun 3aleih belwitu.)
Seeing someone else’s problems makes your own problems seem smaller. (Considering others' problems will give you perspective.)
حماتى مناقرة، قال طلق بنتها (Hamaati mna'ra, 'aal Talla' bintaha)
[He said:] "My mother-in-law's a plague." Someone replied, "Divorce her daughter!" (Used in reference to someone complaining about a problem he can solve himself.)
“I went to interview some of these early Jewish colonial zealots—written off in those days as mere 'fringe' elements—and found that they called themselves Gush Emunim or—it sounded just as bad in English—'The Bloc of the Faithful.' Why not just say 'Party of God' and have done with it? At least they didn't have the nerve to say that they stole other people's land because their own home in Poland or Belarus had been taken from them. They said they took the land because god had given it to them from time immemorial. In the noisome town of Hebron, where all of life is focused on a supposedly sacred boneyard in a dank local cave, one of the world's less pretty sights is that of supposed yeshivah students toting submachine guns and humbling the Arab inhabitants. When I asked one of these charmers where he got his legal authority to be a squatter, he flung his hand, index finger outstretched, toward the sky.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
اللي يلاقي اللي يطبخ له لية يحرق صوابعه؟ (illi ylaa'i lli yuTbuxlu leih yiHra' Sawab3u?)
Why should one who finds someone to cook for him burn his fingers? (Don't do your own dirty work if you can find someone to do it for you.)
اتغدّى بيه قبل ما يتعشّى بيك. (itġadda biih 'abl ma yit3ašša biik.)
Eat him for lunch before he eats you for dinner. (Kill him before he kills you; get your blow in first.)
“London is one of the world's centres of Arab journalism and political activism. The failure of left and right, the establishment and its opposition, to mount principled arguments against clerical reaction has had global ramifications. Ideas minted in Britain – the notion that it is bigoted to oppose bigotry; 'Islamophobic' to oppose clerics whose first desire is to oppress Muslims – swirl out through the press and the net to lands where they can do real harm.”
― Nick Cohen
القرعة بتتباهى بشعر بنت اختها (il-'ar3a bititbaaha b-ša3r bint oxtaha)
The bald woman boasts of her niece's hair. (Used to describe someone who brags about other people's accomplishments or abilities, in particular abilities that person lacks.)
Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend. ― Arabic Proverb
“Actually—and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable—some such divine claim underlay not just 'the occupation' but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan—'a land without a people for a people without a land'—disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
احنا في الهوا سوا. (eHna fil hawa sawa.)
We are in the same boat (lit. same air).
العروسة للعريس والجري للمتاعيس. (il-3aruusa lil-3ariis wel gari lil-mata3iis.)
The bride gets a bridegroom and the rest get miserable. (The bride and bridegroom are happy at a wedding, but the guests go home unhappily.)
“We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping - and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind?”
― Nizar Qabbani
العجل لما يقع تكثر سكاكينه (il-3egl lamma yu'a3, tiktar sakakiinu)
When the calf falls, the knives come out. (When people sense that someone's vulnerable, they'll attack.) There's also a non-Egyptian variant, لما يطيح الجمل تكثر سكاكينه (lamma yTiiH il-jamal, tiktar sakakiinu), referring to a camel instead of a calf.
“We killed you and it was not new for us, we killed the companions of the Prophet and the friends of God. O how many Messengers did we slay? O how many imams? We killed you and you prayed the night prayer, as all of our days are struggle - and all of our days are Karbala.”
― Nizar Qabbani
القرد في عين أمه غزال. (il-'ird fi 3ein ummu ġazaal.)
In his mother’s eye, the monkey is (as beautiful as) a gazelle. (Comment about mothers' bias or partiality to their children.)
“Arab children,
Corn ears of the future,
You will break our chains,
Kill the opium in our heads,
Kill the illusions.
Arab children,
Don't read about our suffocated generation,
We are a hopeless case.
We are as worthless as a water-melon rind.
Dont read about us,
Dont ape us,
Dont accept us,
Dont accept our ideas,
We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.
Arab children,
Spring rain,
Corn ears of the future,
You are the generation
That will overcome defeat. ”
― Nizar Qabbani
لو حرف شعبطة في الجو. (law Harf ša3abaTa feg-gaww.)
"If" is like trying to hold onto the air (i.e. something impossible). (The equivalent of "If wishes were horses"; if someone is talking about what they'd do if they were a millionaire, or something else impossible, you can tell them "law Harf ša3abaTa feg-gaww" to remind them that just wishing for things is pointless.)
الجهل نعمة. (il-gahl ni3ma.)
Ignorance is bliss (lit. a blessing).
كله عند العرب صابون. (kullu 3and il-3arab Sabuun.)
It's all the same thing to those who know nothing. Used if someone views different things as if they're all the same. (Lit. It's all soap to the Bedouins.)
المال السايب يعلم السرقة (il-maal is-saayib yi3allim is-sir'a)
Unattended money teaches thievery. (If you don't keep a close eye on your property, people will steal from you.)
“سماعاً بني العرب الاكرمين ... اُباة التواني حماة الذمم
أفيقوا فمن نام عن حقه... عراه الأذى ولواه العدم
رعى الله شعباً يريد العلى... ويطلبها تحت خفق العلم
إذا لم نقم قومة حرة... ونرجع عهدا طواه القدم
فأين الفخار الذي ندعي... وأين الإباء وأين الكرم
فتى الشعر هذا مجال قرير... فنادي الإباء ونادي الشيم
ونادي الشباب كبار النفوس... ونادي الشباب عماد الأمم
فلا أمل اليوم إلا بهم... لأن الشباب عماد الأمم
وقل لبني العُرب لا تيأسوا... فإن الهموم ستحُي الهمم
وإن المقام على الضيم عار... ولا يغسل العار إلا بدم
ولابد من نهضة للعلى...بها ترفع العرب ذاك العلم”
― عمر حمد, ديوان الشهيد عمر حمد
حجة البليد مسح التختة. (Hegget el-baliid masiH et-taxta.)
The bad student's excuse is erasing the blackboard. (Used to describe people who are trying to divert attention from their own failings by talking about other things.)
مصائب قوم عند قوم فوائده. (maSaa'ib qawmin 3and qawmin fawaa'ido.)
Some people's disasters provide benefits for other people. (What is disastrous for some people can prove to be advantageous for other people.)
الجيات أحسن من الرايحات. (ig-gayyaat aHsan min ir-rayHHaat.)
What is coming is better than what is gone. (The future is better than what's past; used to cheer people up.)
“Drilling without thinking has of course been Republican party policy since May 2008. With gas prices soaring to unprecedented heights, that's when the conservative leader Newt Gingrich unveiled the slogan 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less'—with an emphasis on the now. The wildly popular campaign was a cry against caution, against study, against measured action. In Gingrich's telling, drilling at home wherever the oil and gas might be—locked in Rocky Mountain shale, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and deep offshore—was a surefire way to lower the price at the pump, create jobs, and kick Arab ass all at once. In the face of this triple win, caring about the environment was for sissies: as senator Mitch McConnell put it, 'in Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas, they think oil rigs are pretty'. By the time the infamous 'Drill Baby Drill' Republican national convention rolled around, the party base was in such a frenzy for US-made fossil fuels, they would have bored under the convention floor if someone had brought a big enough drill.”
― Naomi Klein
دبّور زنّ على خراب عشّه. (dabbuur zann 3ala xraab 3eššu.)
A wasp that brought about the destruction of its own nest through its buzzing. (He asked for it, it was his own fault.)
تضرب القدرة على فمها تطلع البنت لأمها. (tiDrab il-'idra 3ala fummaha, tiTla3 il-bint li-ummaha.)
Like mother, like daughter.
هاك الشبل من ذاك الأسد. (haak iš-šiblu min zaak il-asad.)
Similar to the above, used to desribe someone's similarity to one of their parents. Lit. "this cub (is) from that lion."
“المجتمع العربي مشغول بفكرة النمط الواحد، على غرار الحاكم الواحد والقيمة الواحدة والدين الواحد، لذلك يحاول الناس أن يوحدوا أشكال ملابسهم وبيوتهم وآرائهم، وتحت هذه الظروف تذوب شخصية الفرد وخصوصيته واختلافه عن الآخرين، أعني يغيب مفهوم المواطن الفرد لتحل مكانه فكرة الجماعة المتشابهة المطيعة للنظام السائد”
― نوبوأكي نوتوهارا, العرب وجهة نظر يابانية
التكرار يعلّم الحمار. (it-tikraar yi3allim il-Humaar.)
Repetition teaches (even) a donkey. (Practice makes perfect.)
في الامتحان يكرم المرء أو يحان. (fil-imteHaan yokram il-mar' aw yohaan.)
At the time of a test, a person rises or falls. (People's real worth is known only through trial.)
يا واخد القرد على ماله يروح المال ويقعد القرد على حاله. (ya waaxod il-'ird 3ala maalu yiruuH il-maal wa yi'3od il-'ird 3ala Haalu)
If you marry a monkey (i.e. someone ugly) for his money, the money will go away and the monkey will stay the same (as ugly as ever). (Don't marry for money.)
“The first thing you notice, coming to Israel from the Arab world, is that you have left the most courteous region of the globe and entered the rudest. The difference is so profound that you're left wondering when the mutation in Semitic blood occurred, as though God parted the Red Sea and said: "Okay, you rude ones, keep wandering toward the Promised Land. The rest of you can stay here and rot in the desert, saying 'welcome, most welcome' and drowning each other in tea until the end of time.”
― Tony Horwitz, Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
لقّيني ولا اتغدّيني. (la''iini wallitġaddini)
Better a warm welcome than being invited to lunch. (Welcoming people warmly is important.)
ظرّط الإمام، خريوا المصلّين. (ZarraT il-imaam, xiryu l-muSalliin.)
The imam farted, so those praying behind him shitted. (A leader's errors are compounded by his followers.) Again, this saying uses crude language, so you should be careful who you say it around.
طبّاخ السمّ بيدوقه. (Tabbaax is-simm biyduu'u.)
One who cooks poison tastes it. (You have to share, so other people benefit from something you do or get.)
“يا طير هجت الطائرينا ... و فتنت لب العالمينا
لله درك ساحرا ... أبطلت كيد الساحرينا
أظهرت معجزة العلوم... لنا و كنا كافرينا
إنا لقوم يعشقون... النابغين الباسلينا
يتسابقون حفاوة ... بالأقربين الأكرمينا”
― عمر حمد, ديوان الشهيد عمر حمد
القط مايحبش الا خناقه. (il-'uTT mayHebbiš illa xannaa'u.)
The cat only likes its strangler. (People only respond to harsh treatment.)
الغاوي ينقط بطاقيته. (il-ġaawi yna''aT bi-Ta'iytu.)
The fan will donate his skullcap. (An enthusiast will give away everything he has for what he loves.)
الحركة بركة. (il-Haraka baraka.)
Movement is a blessing. (Exercise is good.)
“Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago—and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath be the Palestinian Arabs. Is this a historical injustice? Has the man below been made a victim, with infinite cause of complaint and indefinite justification for violent retaliation? My own reply would be a provisional 'no,' but only on these conditions. The man leaping from the burning building must still make such restitution as he can to the man who broke his fall, and must not pretend that he never even landed on him. And he must base his case on the singularity and uniqueness of the original leap. It can't, in other words, be 'leap, leap, leap' for four generations and more. The people underneath cannot be expected to tolerate leaping on this scale and of this duration, if you catch my drift. In Palestine, tread softly, for you tread on their dreams. And do not tell the Palestinians that they were never fallen upon and bruised in the first place. Do not shame yourself with the cheap lie that they were told by their leaders to run away. Also, stop saying that nobody knew how to cultivate oranges in Jaffa until the Jews showed them how. 'Making the desert bloom'—one of Yvonne's stock phrases—makes desert dwellers out of people who were the agricultural superiors of the Crusaders.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
الوحدة خير من جليس السوء. (il-waHda xeir min giliis is-suu'.)
Being alone is better than being with someone bad. (Warning about keeping bad company.)
امشي في جنازة ولا تمشي في جوازة. (imši fi ganaaza walla timši fi gawaaza.)
Being involved in a funeral is better than trying to arrange marriages. (Warning about matchmaking.)
الطيور على اشكالها تقع. (iT-Tuyuur 3ala aškaaliha taqa3u.)
Birds of a feather flock together.
اليد في الميّة مش زي اليد في النار. (il-iid fil-mayya miš zayy il-iid fin-naar.)
The hand in water isn’t like the hand in fire. (Easier said than done; used to criticize someone removed from the situation at hand who is telling those involved how to deal with it.)
اللى على البرّ عوّام. (illi 3ala l-barr 3awwaam.)
The one on shore is a master swimmer. (See above.)
الشاطرة تغذل برجل الحمار. (iš-šaTra tiġzil bi-rigl il-Homar.)
The clever one spins with a donkey’s leg (i.e. can make something out of nothing). (Used to criticize someone who blames their tools for their bad work.)
اللى ماعندوهوش مايلزمهوش. (illi ma3anduhuuš mayilzimhuuš.)
He who doesn't have (the money to pay for something) does not need it. (If you can't afford something, think twice about whether you really need it or not.)
بعد ما شاب ودوه الكتّاب. (ba3d ma šaab wadduuh ik-kuttaab)
After his hair went white, he went to school. (You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Used to criticize someone old trying to do things more suited to young people.)
عريان الطوق بينط لفوق. (3iryaan iT-Too' binuTT li-foo')
Someone without (even) a collar tries to jump up (i.e. to a higher social class). (Used to criticize someone poor trying to reach up too high above his social status.)
الفاضي يعمل قاضي. (el-faaDi yi3mel 'aaDi)
Someone free plays the judge. (Used to criticize someone with too much free time interfering in other people’s business.)
اللى مكتوب عالجبين لازم تشوفه العين. (illi maktuub 3al-gibiin laazim tšuufu l-3ein.)
What is written on the brow will inevitably be seen by the eye. (One will inevitably meet one’s destiny.)
يا مآمن للرجال يا مآمن الميّة في الغربال. (ya me'aammin lir-ragaal ya me'aammin il-mayya fil-ġurbaal.)
Trusting men is like trusting water in a sieve.
الحلو حلو لو قام من النوم، والوحش وحش لو غسل وشّه كل يوم. (il-Helw Helw law 'aam min in-noom, wal-weHš weHš law ġasal wiššu kull yoom.)
The beautiful is beautiful (even right after) rising from sleep, and the ugly is ugly (even) if they wash their face every day. (You can't hide beauty or make the ugly beautiful.)
يد واحدة ماتسقفش. (iid waHda matsa''afš.)
One hand doesn’t clap. (Cooperation from all sides is necessary to accomplish anything.)
تحت العمّة قرد. (taHt il-3emma 'ird.)
Under the sheikh’s hat is a monkey. (Used to criticize someone who tries to appear good on the outside to cover up their faults, specifically if they try to appear pious.)
يا ما تحت السواهي دواهي. (yaama taHt is-sawaahi dawaahi.)
Underneath the nice exterior is a bunch of problems. (Used to criticize someone who tries to put up a good appearance to cover up their faults.)
على قد لحافك مد رجليك. (3ala 'add liHaafak midd regleik.)
Stretch your legs as far as your blanket extends. (Don’t live beyond your means.)
اللي يتلسع من الشوربة ينفخ في الزبادي. (illi yetlesse3 min iš-šorba yinfox fiz-zabaadi.)
He who burns his tongue from soup will blow in yogurt (to cool it). (Once burned, twice shy.)
انت تريد وهو يريد والله يفعل ما يريد. (anta turiid wa-howa yuriid wallaah yaf3al ma yuriid.)
You want what you want and he wants what he wants, but God does what He wants. (Man proposes, God disposes.)
عريان الطيز يحب تأميز. (3iryaan iT-Tiiz beHebb it-ta'miiz.)
Someone with their ass exposed likes to criticize. (Used in reference to hypocrites.) Note the crude language in this saying, so be careful who you say it around.
أقول تور، يقول احلبوه. (a'uul toor, yi'uul iHlibuuh.)
I say it's a bull, he says milk it. (Used when you're talking at cross-purposes with someone who won't see reason.)
العين ماتعلاش عالحاجب. (il-3ein mate3laaš 3al-Haagib.)
The eye doesn't go higher than the brow. (No one can go above their status in life.)
المتعوس متعوس ولو ركبه على راسه فانوس. (il-mat3uus mat3uus walaw rakibu 3ala raasu fanuus.)
The miserable person will be miserable even if you hang a lantern on his head. (You can't escape your luck.)
اسعى يا عبد وأنا أسعى معاك. (is3a ya 3abd wana as3a ma3aak.)
Make an effort, and I'll make an effort [to help] you. (God helps those who help themselves.)
الفلوس مع التيوس. (il-filuus ma3a t-tuyuus.)
It's always the idiots who have [lots of] money. (Used to disparage the rich.)
المية تكدّب الغطاس. (il-mayya tikeddib il-ġaTTaas.)
The water gives the lie to the diver. (The proof's in the pudding.)
العين بصيرة واليد قصيرة (il-3ein baSiira wal-yad 'aSiira)
The eye sees, but the arm is short (cannot reach). Said when someone wishes for something beyond his means.
القفة ام ودنين يشيلوها اتنين (il-'offa omm widnein yišiiluuha tnein)
A basket has two handles (lit. ears) for two people to carry it. (Many hands make light work.)
اذا كان حبيبك عسل، ماتلحسوش كله (iza kaan Habiibak 3asal, matilHasuuš kullu)
If your friend is honey, don't lick it all. (Don't take advantage of your friends.)
صاحب بالين كداب وصاحب تلاتة منافق (SaaHib balein kaddaab, wa-SaaHib talaata mnaafi')
Someone who tries to do two things at once is a liar, and someone who tries to do three things at once is a hypocrite. (You can't divide your effort between multiple things and do them well.)
حاميها حراميها (Hamiiha Haramiiha)
Its protector is its thief. (Similar to "the fox guarding the henhouse," but not exactly the same. Used in reference to someone like a police officer or a government official, who should be protecting people, actually committing crimes, embezzlement, theft, etc. against them.)
قليل البخت يلاقي العظم في الكرشة. ('aliil il-baxt yilaa'i l-3aDm fil-kirša.)
The unlucky person finds bones in his tripe dinner. (You can't escape bad luck.) See also the variation قليل البخت يتكعبل في السديري ('aliil il-baxt yitka3bil fis-sideiri), "The unlucky person trips over [his own] waistcoat/vest."
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home”
― Mahatma Gandhi
لا يلدغ المؤمن من جحر مرتين. (la yuldaġ il-mo'men min goHr marratein.)
The believer is not bitten from the same hole twice. (Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.)
“Our shouting is louder than our actions,
Our swords are taller than us,
This is our tragedy.
In short
We wear the cape of civilisation
But our souls live in the stone age”
― Nizar Qabbani
خسارة قريبة أحسن من مكسب بعيد. (xosaara qariiba aHsan min maksab ba3iid.)
A loss soon is better than a victory much later. (It's better to cut your losses and admit defeat quickly rather than stick it out and eventually win a victory that cost you a lot.)
شحات ونزهي. (šaHHaat we-nozahi.)
A beggar but acting like a rich man. (Used to describe someone who's in no position to be picky but is still acting like he can set the terms of whatever bargain etc. is going on. Sort of like the equivalent of "Beggars can't be choosers," but in reverse.)
“تذكروا أنكم أبناء من خضعت ... لسيفهم دول الرومان و العجم
و الشرق دان لهم و الغرب دان لهم ... و تحت أخمصهم كم طأطأت قمم
سل أرض ” أندلس ” إن كنت تجهلنا ... و أهل أندلس عنا بما علموا
آثارنا باقيات في مرابعهم ... و علمنا ناطق و الفضل و الشيم
أن يزعموا أننا لسنا نماثلهم ... في كل مكرمة – يا كذب ما زعموا
تنبهوا و انهضوا فالحق مهتضم ... من نام عن حقه أودى به العدمُ”
― عمر حمد, ديوان الشهيد عمر حمد
لبس البوصة، تبقى عروسة. (labbis il-buuSa, tib'a 3aruusa.)
Dressing up a stick turns it into a bride. (Clothes make the man.)
“Then all at once our personal and political quarrels were made very abruptly to converge. In the special edition of the London Review of Books published to mark the events of September 11, 2001, Edward painted a picture of an almost fascist America where Arab and Muslim citizens were being daily terrorized by pogroms, these being instigated by men like Paul Wolfowitz who had talked of 'ending' the regimes that sheltered Al Quaeda. Again, I could hardly credit that these sentences were being produced by a cultured person, let alone printed by a civilized publication.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
تأتي الرياح بما لا تشتهي السفن (ta'ti r-riyaaH bi-ma la taštahi s-sufun)
Winds do not blow as the ships wish. (You can't always get what you want.)
ديل الكلب عمره مايتعدل (deil ik-kalb 3omru mayet3edel)
The dog's tail will never straighten out. (A leopard doesn't change its spots.)
الكفن مالوش جيوب (il-kafan maluuš giyuub)
The shroud has no pockets. (You can't take it with you.)
ابن الوزّ عوّام. (ibn il-wazz 3awwam.)
The son of a goose is a swimmer. (Like father, like son.)
“Inevitably came the time when he angrily repudiated his former paladin Yasser Arafat. In fact, he described him to me as 'the Palestinian blend of Marshal Petaín and Papa Doc.' But the main problem, alas, remained the same. In Edward's moral universe, Arafat could at last be named as a thug and a practitioner of corruption and extortion. But he could only be identified as such to the extent that he was now and at last aligned with an American design. Thus the only truly unpardonable thing about 'The Chairman' was his readiness to appear on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton in 1993. I have real knowledge and memory of this, because George Stephanopoulos—whose father's Orthodox church in Ohio and New York had kept him in touch with what was still a predominantly Christian Arab-American opinion—called me more than once from the White House to help beseech Edward to show up at the event. 'The feedback we get from Arab-American voters is this: If it's such a great idea, why isn't Said signing off on it?' When I called him, Edward was grudging and crabby. 'The old man [Arafat] has no right to sign away land.' Really? Then what had the Algiers deal been all about? How could two states come into being without mutual concessions on territory?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
شحات وعايز رغيف. (šaHHaat we-3aayiz riġiif.)
A beggar, and he wants a (whole) loaf. (If you're relying on other people's generosity, you should just be grateful for whatever you can get instead of complaining you didn't get more.)
عمر الشقي بقي. (3omr iš-ša'i ba'i.)
The wicked or naughty live longer. (Can be used to hint that if you take risks, it'll pay off. Can also be used in a joking way; for example, if a friend was in a minor car accident and was uninjured, you could tell them, "3omr iš-ša'i ba'i.")
وقع في شر أعماله. (il-ġurbaal il-gediid luh šadda.)
The new sieve is taut. (A new broom sweeps clean.)
دخول الحمّام مش زي خروجه (duxuul il-Hammaam miš zayye xruugu)
Entering a bathroom isn't like leaving it. (It's easier to get yourself into a situation than it is to get out of it.)
“Long before it was known to me as a place where my ancestry was even remotely involved, the idea of a state for Jews (or a Jewish state; not quite the same thing, as I failed at first to see) had been 'sold' to me as an essentially secular and democratic one. The idea was a haven for the persecuted and the survivors, a democracy in a region where the idea was poorly understood, and a place where—as Philip Roth had put it in a one-handed novel that I read when I was about nineteen—even the traffic cops and soldiers were Jews. This, like the other emphases of that novel, I could grasp. Indeed, my first visit was sponsored by a group in London called the Friends of Israel. They offered to pay my expenses, that is, if on my return I would come and speak to one of their meetings.
I still haven't submitted that expenses claim. The misgivings I had were of two types, both of them ineradicable. The first and the simplest was the encounter with everyday injustice: by all means the traffic cops were Jews but so, it turned out, were the colonists and ethnic cleansers and even the torturers. It was Jewish leftist friends who insisted that I go and see towns and villages under occupation, and sit down with Palestinian Arabs who were living under house arrest—if they were lucky—or who were squatting in the ruins of their demolished homes if they were less fortunate. In Ramallah I spent the day with the beguiling Raimonda Tawil, confined to her home for committing no known crime save that of expressing her opinions. (For some reason, what I most remember is a sudden exclamation from her very restrained and respectable husband, a manager of the local bank: 'I would prefer living under a Bedouin muktar to another day of Israeli rule!' He had obviously spent some time thinking about the most revolting possible Arab alternative.) In Jerusalem I visited the Tutungi family, who could produce title deeds going back generations but who were being evicted from their apartment in the old city to make way for an expansion of the Jewish quarter. Jerusalem: that place of blood since remote antiquity. Jerusalem, over which the British and French and Russians had fought a foul war in the Crimea, and in the mid-nineteenth century, on the matter of which Christian Church could command the keys to some 'holy sepulcher.' Jerusalem, where the anti-Semite Balfour had tried to bribe the Jews with the territory of another people in order to seduce them from Bolshevism and continue the diplomacy of the Great War. Jerusalem: that pest-house in whose environs all zealots hope that an even greater and final war can be provoked. It certainly made a warped appeal to my sense of history.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
مافيش حلاوة من غير نار (mafiiš Halaawa min ġeir naar)
There's no dessert without fire (i.e. in the baking process). (You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.)
الغالي تمنه فيه (il-ġaali tamanu fiih)
You get what you pay for. (Expensive things are worth the price for their quality.)
إن سرقت، اسرق جمل، وإن عشقت، اعشق قمر (in sara't, isra' gamal, wa'in 3eše't, i3ša' 'amar)
If you steal, steal a camel, and if you love, love (someone as beautiful as) the moon. (If you're going to do something, go all out.)
“Based on the considerations of history, ancient history, and international axioms, the logic of following up a citizen with his shadow for the purpose of the demarcation of political frontiers of any state has been discounted for international conventions. For example the Arabs cannot ask Spain just because they were there some time in the past nor can they ask for any other area outside the frontiers of the Arab homeland”
― Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein on Current Events in Iraq
وقع في شر أعماله. (wi'i3 fi šarr a3maalu.)
He got entangled in the evil of his own doings. (He was hoisted by his own petard — fell into his own trap, was harmed by his own plan to harm someone else.)
المؤمن مصاب. (il-mo'men muSaab.)
The believer is afflicted. (The righteous always suffer.)
“Arab nationalism in its traditional form was the way in which secular Arab Christians like Edward had found and kept a place for themselves, while simultaneously avoiding the charge of being too 'Western.' It was very noticeable among the Palestinians that the most demonstrably 'extreme' nationalists—and Marxists—were often from Christian backgrounds. George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh used to be celebrated examples of this phenomenon, long before anyone had heard of the cadres of Hamas, or Islamic Jihad. There was an element of overcompensation involved, or so I came to suspect.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
اللى على راسه بطحة بيحصص عليها. (illi 3ala raasu baTHa biHaSSiS 3aleiha.)
Those who have an injury on their head keep checking it. (People who have a weakness show it.)
دوام الحال من المحال. (dawaam il-Haal min il-muHaal.)
Continuing the same state is impossible. (Nothing stays the same.)
اللى يشوف بلوة غيره تهون عليه بلوته. (illi yišuuf belwit ġeiru tihuun 3aleih belwitu.)
Seeing someone else’s problems makes your own problems seem smaller. (Considering others' problems will give you perspective.)
حماتى مناقرة، قال طلق بنتها (Hamaati mna'ra, 'aal Talla' bintaha)
[He said:] "My mother-in-law's a plague." Someone replied, "Divorce her daughter!" (Used in reference to someone complaining about a problem he can solve himself.)
“I went to interview some of these early Jewish colonial zealots—written off in those days as mere 'fringe' elements—and found that they called themselves Gush Emunim or—it sounded just as bad in English—'The Bloc of the Faithful.' Why not just say 'Party of God' and have done with it? At least they didn't have the nerve to say that they stole other people's land because their own home in Poland or Belarus had been taken from them. They said they took the land because god had given it to them from time immemorial. In the noisome town of Hebron, where all of life is focused on a supposedly sacred boneyard in a dank local cave, one of the world's less pretty sights is that of supposed yeshivah students toting submachine guns and humbling the Arab inhabitants. When I asked one of these charmers where he got his legal authority to be a squatter, he flung his hand, index finger outstretched, toward the sky.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
اللي يلاقي اللي يطبخ له لية يحرق صوابعه؟ (illi ylaa'i lli yuTbuxlu leih yiHra' Sawab3u?)
Why should one who finds someone to cook for him burn his fingers? (Don't do your own dirty work if you can find someone to do it for you.)
اتغدّى بيه قبل ما يتعشّى بيك. (itġadda biih 'abl ma yit3ašša biik.)
Eat him for lunch before he eats you for dinner. (Kill him before he kills you; get your blow in first.)
“London is one of the world's centres of Arab journalism and political activism. The failure of left and right, the establishment and its opposition, to mount principled arguments against clerical reaction has had global ramifications. Ideas minted in Britain – the notion that it is bigoted to oppose bigotry; 'Islamophobic' to oppose clerics whose first desire is to oppress Muslims – swirl out through the press and the net to lands where they can do real harm.”
― Nick Cohen
القرعة بتتباهى بشعر بنت اختها (il-'ar3a bititbaaha b-ša3r bint oxtaha)
The bald woman boasts of her niece's hair. (Used to describe someone who brags about other people's accomplishments or abilities, in particular abilities that person lacks.)
Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend. ― Arabic Proverb
“Actually—and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable—some such divine claim underlay not just 'the occupation' but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan—'a land without a people for a people without a land'—disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
احنا في الهوا سوا. (eHna fil hawa sawa.)
We are in the same boat (lit. same air).
العروسة للعريس والجري للمتاعيس. (il-3aruusa lil-3ariis wel gari lil-mata3iis.)
The bride gets a bridegroom and the rest get miserable. (The bride and bridegroom are happy at a wedding, but the guests go home unhappily.)
“We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping - and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind?”
― Nizar Qabbani
العجل لما يقع تكثر سكاكينه (il-3egl lamma yu'a3, tiktar sakakiinu)
When the calf falls, the knives come out. (When people sense that someone's vulnerable, they'll attack.) There's also a non-Egyptian variant, لما يطيح الجمل تكثر سكاكينه (lamma yTiiH il-jamal, tiktar sakakiinu), referring to a camel instead of a calf.
“We killed you and it was not new for us, we killed the companions of the Prophet and the friends of God. O how many Messengers did we slay? O how many imams? We killed you and you prayed the night prayer, as all of our days are struggle - and all of our days are Karbala.”
― Nizar Qabbani
القرد في عين أمه غزال. (il-'ird fi 3ein ummu ġazaal.)
In his mother’s eye, the monkey is (as beautiful as) a gazelle. (Comment about mothers' bias or partiality to their children.)
“Arab children,
Corn ears of the future,
You will break our chains,
Kill the opium in our heads,
Kill the illusions.
Arab children,
Don't read about our suffocated generation,
We are a hopeless case.
We are as worthless as a water-melon rind.
Dont read about us,
Dont ape us,
Dont accept us,
Dont accept our ideas,
We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.
Arab children,
Spring rain,
Corn ears of the future,
You are the generation
That will overcome defeat. ”
― Nizar Qabbani
لو حرف شعبطة في الجو. (law Harf ša3abaTa feg-gaww.)
"If" is like trying to hold onto the air (i.e. something impossible). (The equivalent of "If wishes were horses"; if someone is talking about what they'd do if they were a millionaire, or something else impossible, you can tell them "law Harf ša3abaTa feg-gaww" to remind them that just wishing for things is pointless.)
الجهل نعمة. (il-gahl ni3ma.)
Ignorance is bliss (lit. a blessing).
كله عند العرب صابون. (kullu 3and il-3arab Sabuun.)
It's all the same thing to those who know nothing. Used if someone views different things as if they're all the same. (Lit. It's all soap to the Bedouins.)
المال السايب يعلم السرقة (il-maal is-saayib yi3allim is-sir'a)
Unattended money teaches thievery. (If you don't keep a close eye on your property, people will steal from you.)
“سماعاً بني العرب الاكرمين ... اُباة التواني حماة الذمم
أفيقوا فمن نام عن حقه... عراه الأذى ولواه العدم
رعى الله شعباً يريد العلى... ويطلبها تحت خفق العلم
إذا لم نقم قومة حرة... ونرجع عهدا طواه القدم
فأين الفخار الذي ندعي... وأين الإباء وأين الكرم
فتى الشعر هذا مجال قرير... فنادي الإباء ونادي الشيم
ونادي الشباب كبار النفوس... ونادي الشباب عماد الأمم
فلا أمل اليوم إلا بهم... لأن الشباب عماد الأمم
وقل لبني العُرب لا تيأسوا... فإن الهموم ستحُي الهمم
وإن المقام على الضيم عار... ولا يغسل العار إلا بدم
ولابد من نهضة للعلى...بها ترفع العرب ذاك العلم”
― عمر حمد, ديوان الشهيد عمر حمد
حجة البليد مسح التختة. (Hegget el-baliid masiH et-taxta.)
The bad student's excuse is erasing the blackboard. (Used to describe people who are trying to divert attention from their own failings by talking about other things.)
مصائب قوم عند قوم فوائده. (maSaa'ib qawmin 3and qawmin fawaa'ido.)
Some people's disasters provide benefits for other people. (What is disastrous for some people can prove to be advantageous for other people.)
الجيات أحسن من الرايحات. (ig-gayyaat aHsan min ir-rayHHaat.)
What is coming is better than what is gone. (The future is better than what's past; used to cheer people up.)
“Drilling without thinking has of course been Republican party policy since May 2008. With gas prices soaring to unprecedented heights, that's when the conservative leader Newt Gingrich unveiled the slogan 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less'—with an emphasis on the now. The wildly popular campaign was a cry against caution, against study, against measured action. In Gingrich's telling, drilling at home wherever the oil and gas might be—locked in Rocky Mountain shale, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and deep offshore—was a surefire way to lower the price at the pump, create jobs, and kick Arab ass all at once. In the face of this triple win, caring about the environment was for sissies: as senator Mitch McConnell put it, 'in Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas, they think oil rigs are pretty'. By the time the infamous 'Drill Baby Drill' Republican national convention rolled around, the party base was in such a frenzy for US-made fossil fuels, they would have bored under the convention floor if someone had brought a big enough drill.”
― Naomi Klein
دبّور زنّ على خراب عشّه. (dabbuur zann 3ala xraab 3eššu.)
A wasp that brought about the destruction of its own nest through its buzzing. (He asked for it, it was his own fault.)
تضرب القدرة على فمها تطلع البنت لأمها. (tiDrab il-'idra 3ala fummaha, tiTla3 il-bint li-ummaha.)
Like mother, like daughter.
هاك الشبل من ذاك الأسد. (haak iš-šiblu min zaak il-asad.)
Similar to the above, used to desribe someone's similarity to one of their parents. Lit. "this cub (is) from that lion."
“المجتمع العربي مشغول بفكرة النمط الواحد، على غرار الحاكم الواحد والقيمة الواحدة والدين الواحد، لذلك يحاول الناس أن يوحدوا أشكال ملابسهم وبيوتهم وآرائهم، وتحت هذه الظروف تذوب شخصية الفرد وخصوصيته واختلافه عن الآخرين، أعني يغيب مفهوم المواطن الفرد لتحل مكانه فكرة الجماعة المتشابهة المطيعة للنظام السائد”
― نوبوأكي نوتوهارا, العرب وجهة نظر يابانية
التكرار يعلّم الحمار. (it-tikraar yi3allim il-Humaar.)
Repetition teaches (even) a donkey. (Practice makes perfect.)
في الامتحان يكرم المرء أو يحان. (fil-imteHaan yokram il-mar' aw yohaan.)
At the time of a test, a person rises or falls. (People's real worth is known only through trial.)
يا واخد القرد على ماله يروح المال ويقعد القرد على حاله. (ya waaxod il-'ird 3ala maalu yiruuH il-maal wa yi'3od il-'ird 3ala Haalu)
If you marry a monkey (i.e. someone ugly) for his money, the money will go away and the monkey will stay the same (as ugly as ever). (Don't marry for money.)
“The first thing you notice, coming to Israel from the Arab world, is that you have left the most courteous region of the globe and entered the rudest. The difference is so profound that you're left wondering when the mutation in Semitic blood occurred, as though God parted the Red Sea and said: "Okay, you rude ones, keep wandering toward the Promised Land. The rest of you can stay here and rot in the desert, saying 'welcome, most welcome' and drowning each other in tea until the end of time.”
― Tony Horwitz, Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
لقّيني ولا اتغدّيني. (la''iini wallitġaddini)
Better a warm welcome than being invited to lunch. (Welcoming people warmly is important.)
ظرّط الإمام، خريوا المصلّين. (ZarraT il-imaam, xiryu l-muSalliin.)
The imam farted, so those praying behind him shitted. (A leader's errors are compounded by his followers.) Again, this saying uses crude language, so you should be careful who you say it around.
طبّاخ السمّ بيدوقه. (Tabbaax is-simm biyduu'u.)
One who cooks poison tastes it. (You have to share, so other people benefit from something you do or get.)
“يا طير هجت الطائرينا ... و فتنت لب العالمينا
لله درك ساحرا ... أبطلت كيد الساحرينا
أظهرت معجزة العلوم... لنا و كنا كافرينا
إنا لقوم يعشقون... النابغين الباسلينا
يتسابقون حفاوة ... بالأقربين الأكرمينا”
― عمر حمد, ديوان الشهيد عمر حمد
القط مايحبش الا خناقه. (il-'uTT mayHebbiš illa xannaa'u.)
The cat only likes its strangler. (People only respond to harsh treatment.)
الغاوي ينقط بطاقيته. (il-ġaawi yna''aT bi-Ta'iytu.)
The fan will donate his skullcap. (An enthusiast will give away everything he has for what he loves.)
الحركة بركة. (il-Haraka baraka.)
Movement is a blessing. (Exercise is good.)
“Suppose that a man leaps out of a burning building—as my dear friend and colleague Jeff Goldberg sat and said to my face over a table at La Tomate in Washington not two years ago—and lands on a bystander in the street below. Now, make the burning building be Europe, and the luckless man underneath be the Palestinian Arabs. Is this a historical injustice? Has the man below been made a victim, with infinite cause of complaint and indefinite justification for violent retaliation? My own reply would be a provisional 'no,' but only on these conditions. The man leaping from the burning building must still make such restitution as he can to the man who broke his fall, and must not pretend that he never even landed on him. And he must base his case on the singularity and uniqueness of the original leap. It can't, in other words, be 'leap, leap, leap' for four generations and more. The people underneath cannot be expected to tolerate leaping on this scale and of this duration, if you catch my drift. In Palestine, tread softly, for you tread on their dreams. And do not tell the Palestinians that they were never fallen upon and bruised in the first place. Do not shame yourself with the cheap lie that they were told by their leaders to run away. Also, stop saying that nobody knew how to cultivate oranges in Jaffa until the Jews showed them how. 'Making the desert bloom'—one of Yvonne's stock phrases—makes desert dwellers out of people who were the agricultural superiors of the Crusaders.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22: A Memoir
الوحدة خير من جليس السوء. (il-waHda xeir min giliis is-suu'.)
Being alone is better than being with someone bad. (Warning about keeping bad company.)
امشي في جنازة ولا تمشي في جوازة. (imši fi ganaaza walla timši fi gawaaza.)
Being involved in a funeral is better than trying to arrange marriages. (Warning about matchmaking.)
الطيور على اشكالها تقع. (iT-Tuyuur 3ala aškaaliha taqa3u.)
Birds of a feather flock together.
اليد في الميّة مش زي اليد في النار. (il-iid fil-mayya miš zayy il-iid fin-naar.)
The hand in water isn’t like the hand in fire. (Easier said than done; used to criticize someone removed from the situation at hand who is telling those involved how to deal with it.)
اللى على البرّ عوّام. (illi 3ala l-barr 3awwaam.)
The one on shore is a master swimmer. (See above.)
الشاطرة تغذل برجل الحمار. (iš-šaTra tiġzil bi-rigl il-Homar.)
The clever one spins with a donkey’s leg (i.e. can make something out of nothing). (Used to criticize someone who blames their tools for their bad work.)
اللى ماعندوهوش مايلزمهوش. (illi ma3anduhuuš mayilzimhuuš.)
He who doesn't have (the money to pay for something) does not need it. (If you can't afford something, think twice about whether you really need it or not.)
بعد ما شاب ودوه الكتّاب. (ba3d ma šaab wadduuh ik-kuttaab)
After his hair went white, he went to school. (You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Used to criticize someone old trying to do things more suited to young people.)
عريان الطوق بينط لفوق. (3iryaan iT-Too' binuTT li-foo')
Someone without (even) a collar tries to jump up (i.e. to a higher social class). (Used to criticize someone poor trying to reach up too high above his social status.)
الفاضي يعمل قاضي. (el-faaDi yi3mel 'aaDi)
Someone free plays the judge. (Used to criticize someone with too much free time interfering in other people’s business.)
اللى مكتوب عالجبين لازم تشوفه العين. (illi maktuub 3al-gibiin laazim tšuufu l-3ein.)
What is written on the brow will inevitably be seen by the eye. (One will inevitably meet one’s destiny.)
يا مآمن للرجال يا مآمن الميّة في الغربال. (ya me'aammin lir-ragaal ya me'aammin il-mayya fil-ġurbaal.)
Trusting men is like trusting water in a sieve.
الحلو حلو لو قام من النوم، والوحش وحش لو غسل وشّه كل يوم. (il-Helw Helw law 'aam min in-noom, wal-weHš weHš law ġasal wiššu kull yoom.)
The beautiful is beautiful (even right after) rising from sleep, and the ugly is ugly (even) if they wash their face every day. (You can't hide beauty or make the ugly beautiful.)
يد واحدة ماتسقفش. (iid waHda matsa''afš.)
One hand doesn’t clap. (Cooperation from all sides is necessary to accomplish anything.)
تحت العمّة قرد. (taHt il-3emma 'ird.)
Under the sheikh’s hat is a monkey. (Used to criticize someone who tries to appear good on the outside to cover up their faults, specifically if they try to appear pious.)
يا ما تحت السواهي دواهي. (yaama taHt is-sawaahi dawaahi.)
Underneath the nice exterior is a bunch of problems. (Used to criticize someone who tries to put up a good appearance to cover up their faults.)
على قد لحافك مد رجليك. (3ala 'add liHaafak midd regleik.)
Stretch your legs as far as your blanket extends. (Don’t live beyond your means.)
اللي يتلسع من الشوربة ينفخ في الزبادي. (illi yetlesse3 min iš-šorba yinfox fiz-zabaadi.)
He who burns his tongue from soup will blow in yogurt (to cool it). (Once burned, twice shy.)
انت تريد وهو يريد والله يفعل ما يريد. (anta turiid wa-howa yuriid wallaah yaf3al ma yuriid.)
You want what you want and he wants what he wants, but God does what He wants. (Man proposes, God disposes.)
عريان الطيز يحب تأميز. (3iryaan iT-Tiiz beHebb it-ta'miiz.)
Someone with their ass exposed likes to criticize. (Used in reference to hypocrites.) Note the crude language in this saying, so be careful who you say it around.
أقول تور، يقول احلبوه. (a'uul toor, yi'uul iHlibuuh.)
I say it's a bull, he says milk it. (Used when you're talking at cross-purposes with someone who won't see reason.)
العين ماتعلاش عالحاجب. (il-3ein mate3laaš 3al-Haagib.)
The eye doesn't go higher than the brow. (No one can go above their status in life.)
المتعوس متعوس ولو ركبه على راسه فانوس. (il-mat3uus mat3uus walaw rakibu 3ala raasu fanuus.)
The miserable person will be miserable even if you hang a lantern on his head. (You can't escape your luck.)
اسعى يا عبد وأنا أسعى معاك. (is3a ya 3abd wana as3a ma3aak.)
Make an effort, and I'll make an effort [to help] you. (God helps those who help themselves.)
الفلوس مع التيوس. (il-filuus ma3a t-tuyuus.)
It's always the idiots who have [lots of] money. (Used to disparage the rich.)
المية تكدّب الغطاس. (il-mayya tikeddib il-ġaTTaas.)
The water gives the lie to the diver. (The proof's in the pudding.)
العين بصيرة واليد قصيرة (il-3ein baSiira wal-yad 'aSiira)
The eye sees, but the arm is short (cannot reach). Said when someone wishes for something beyond his means.
القفة ام ودنين يشيلوها اتنين (il-'offa omm widnein yišiiluuha tnein)
A basket has two handles (lit. ears) for two people to carry it. (Many hands make light work.)
اذا كان حبيبك عسل، ماتلحسوش كله (iza kaan Habiibak 3asal, matilHasuuš kullu)
If your friend is honey, don't lick it all. (Don't take advantage of your friends.)
صاحب بالين كداب وصاحب تلاتة منافق (SaaHib balein kaddaab, wa-SaaHib talaata mnaafi')
Someone who tries to do two things at once is a liar, and someone who tries to do three things at once is a hypocrite. (You can't divide your effort between multiple things and do them well.)
حاميها حراميها (Hamiiha Haramiiha)
Its protector is its thief. (Similar to "the fox guarding the henhouse," but not exactly the same. Used in reference to someone like a police officer or a government official, who should be protecting people, actually committing crimes, embezzlement, theft, etc. against them.)
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