Is fhearr caraid 's a chùirt na crùn 's an sporran
is fhearr caraid 's a chùirt na crùn 's an sporran
A friend at court beats a coin in your pocket.
石の上にも三年
ishi no ue ni mo sannen
Patience and perseverance will transform even the most uncomfortable situation.
Жаба тражила да је поткују
žaba tražila da je potkuju
The frog that wanted to be shod like a horse
Хүүхэд нэг эрдэнэ, хүмүүжил мянган эрдэнэ
khüükhed neg erdene, khümüüjil myangan erdene
A child is one treasure; raising one well is a thousand.
Why Greeks say mountains never meet but people do — and how Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish circle the same observation about the inevitability of encounter from four very different cosmologies.
The Greek phrase — Βουνό με βουνό δε σμίγει, μα άνθρωπος μ' άνθρωπο σμίγει —
means literally Mountain with mountain doesn't meet, but person with person meets.
In idiomatic use it carries far more.
This essay sits with the difference for some pages. By the end we have not solved it. We have only learned to hear it.
Saadi's drops gather into a sea. Ovid's drops hollow a stone. Swahili grain fills a small wooden cup. Japanese dust becomes a mountain. Five languages chose five different small things — and the smallness, in each case, is exactly the point.