Polish Sayings: Group 1

The theme for today's proverbs is rhyme. So, be warned: the English translations completely fail to capture the essence of the proverb itself; you just get the meaning of the words in English, but not the wonderful rhyme that is the heart of each of these Polish proverbs.

Here are the proverbs, and you can listen to the audio below:

Długa mowa, próżne słowa.
Long speech, empty words.
Notes: Polish mowa is feminine singular and słowa is neuter plural, but they still rhyme! We've all had to listen to meaningless blah-blah-blah; that's what this proverb denounces. And, of course, it does it in just a few words, NOT długa mowa. That's the whole point of proverbs: to be short!

Każdy kraj ma swój raj.
Every country has its own paradise.
Notes: Here the rhyming words are country, kraj, and paradise, raj. The words are not etymologically related, but the rhyme links them.

Do Boga, gdy trwoga.
(You turn) to God when (there is) terror.
Notes: Here the rhyming words are God (genitive singular), Boga, and terror, nominative singular, trwoga. The rhyme is able to link words in different cases playing different grammatical roles in the proverbs. Rhyme is powerful!

Kto rano wstaje, temu Pan Bóg daje.
God gives to him who rises in the morning.
Notes: Here you have two verbs that rhyme, wstaje and daje; this type of grammatical rhyme is easy in Polish because of the large number of polysyllabic word endings: instant rhyme! See the LOLcat for this one below.

Ni z gruszki, ni z pietruszki.
Neither pear nor parsley.
Notes: Here the English at least has alliteration (pear and parsley), but the Polish rhyme is better: gruszki and pietruszki. This saying is used when someone says something out of nowhere, having nothing to do with anything at all, totally random; compare the English saying "out of the blue."

Dla późnych gości pozostają kości.
Bones are left for the late guests.
Notes: Here it is the guest and the bones who rhyme: gości kości. You better show up on time if you expect to be fed. Otherwise, there might be nothing but bones left! This applies literally to dinner guests, and metaphorically it applies to any situation where you run late and as a result miss out on something valuable or important.

Baran ma rogi, a zając nogi.
The ram has horns, but the hare has legs.
Notes: Horns are useful to the ram for fighting, but the hare has something useful too: he can avoid a fight by running away fast. Which one are you? I'm definitely a hare when it comes to fighting. The rhyme puts the emphasis on the horns and the legs, rogi nogi.

Chleb ma rogi, nędza nogi.
Bread has horns; misery has legs.
Notes: Here the horns and legs are metaphorical. The idea is that when someone has bread (material success, comfort, etc.), then they can become confident, even overly confident, aggressive (like the ram with his horns). But when someone is poor, they have to use their legs (their wits, their inventiveness) in order to find something to eat; they need to be quick-footed and quick-witted. Compare English "necessity is the mother of invention."

I Herkules dupa, kiedy ludzi kupa.
Even Hercules is a failure when there's a gang of people (that he has to fight).
Notes: This is a hilarious Polish variation of a famous classical saying: "Not even Hercules fights more than one opponent at a time." In this case, the rhyme is dupa and kupa, where dupa, literally "ass" or "butt," means "failure," and kupa,  refers to the "pile, gang, crowd," i.e. the crowd of people that Hercules has ganged up on Hercules, turning the mighty hero into a contemptible failure. Even better: kupa also has scatological connotations, so the rhyme with dupa is even funnier! Kupa means "pile" in the sense here of people piling on, ganging up, etc, but also "pile" in the same sense as English "pile of shit."

Nosił wilk razy kilka, ponieśli i wilka.
The wolf carried off (sheep) several times, and they also carried off the wolf.
Notes: This is one of those tiny proverbs that tells a story: the wolf managed to get away with stealing sheep and carrying them off several times, razy kilka, but then some unspecified "they" (shepherds, hunters, some people in the plural) killed and carried off the wolf, wilka. The rhyme kilka-wilka turns the wolf into an accusative victim as if the rhyme itself has somehow doomed him!

I hope you have enjoyed today's rhyming proverbs... and there are lots more to come! I'd guess that easily a quarter or more of Polish proverbs feature some kind of rhyme. Which means hundreds and hundreds of rhyming proverbs!

And here is today's audio (I'm not a native speaker, so this is TTS-generated); the saying repeats so that you can listen and then repeat along with the audio if you want. You can also use the audio for dictation practice, using this blog post to then check your answers.



Plus here's a LOLcat: