SOME BULGARIAN PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

  (literal translation)

 

BETTER the grave than a slave.
IT is easier to fondle lassies, than to cut timbers.
THE SLUGGARD  works twice, the niggard pays twice.
NOT EVERY nun becomes Mother Superior.
TOO many barbers would be ready to shave the beard of a beardless man.
IT is easy to be the father of children already born.
WRIGGLING hands like young bride's legs.
WHERE shepherds are lots, sheep are lost.
BAD weather gets better, a bad man never does.
THE BAD tax-collector will sell one of your oxen, the good one - both.
WHY didn't the midwife, who cut your naval string, cut your head instead.
THE SUN shines on mud, but does not get muddy.
WATER washes up everything but shame.
TELL the blind he is eyeless, and he will get mad at you.
THE DOG barks to keep itself, not the village.
IF GOD should listen to rooks, he should send a plague to horses.
HE who undertakes too many jobs does none.
HE that flies high falls low down.
AN HAUGHTY person will not even reach down to take his own nose if it had fallen to the ground.
GIVE me money to buy myself a purse to put my money in.
THEY do not want him in the village, he asks for the priest's house.
THE BLIND hen, when it sees again, wants even to mount the cock.
THE CHICKEN teaches the hen to lay eggs.
THE MEEK lamb sucks from two mothers.
WE had a dog, it helped the wolf.
THE STRONGHOLD is taken from within.
EMBRACE the snake and it will bite you.
HE who gets angry, grows old fast.
BURNING the quilt because of the fleas.
THE HUMP is straightened only by the grave.
THE DONKEY, though it may go to the Holy Land, will still come back a donkey.
BURNING the poor man's candles, counting the rich man's money.
FLIES plough the ox' horns.
HE that has a hawk, has three hundred partridges.
HE who gives much, will soon start begging.
YOU only be a sheep, wolves will be found.
THE MOSQUITO  weighs 99 kilos on his own scale.
GOOD swimmers are more often drowners.
UNFENCED garden - fenced in desert.
HELL is also made for people.
I GAVE UP smoking, smoking would not give me up.
A SINGLE hand cannot wash itself even in the Danube river.
THE SPARROWS quarrel over somebody's else millet.
WHAT the devil is unable to do, he asks a woman to do.
GO hunting for rabbits - be eaten by wolves.
MANY people wash their hands to have dinner with the bishop, only a few sit down to his table.
HE who steals the minaret shall find a case to hide it.
WHEN the sea turned to honey, the poor man lost his spoon.
EVERY tree has its worm to eat it.
HE that sleeps with a dog, should bear its fleas.
THERE is no boneless fish.
HE who lies, hangs from a gallows - he who does not, hangs twice.
ONE learns as long as one lives and still dies a fool.
THE DRUM is large but empty.
WHEN given a kingdom, the gypsy asks: what about bread?
FOR the blind sellers there are blind buyers.
WATCH your step when you walk: you may find nothing but you will not stumble.
IF your neighbour's house is on fire, make haste to put out the fire in your own house.
WITH a king it is the same as with fire - stay neither close by, nor too far away.
DO not put all eggs in one basket.
DRAW water from the new well, but do not spit in the old one.
IF you are going to drown, do not try it in shallow water.
HE who buys what he does not need, sells what he needs.
HE that wills not to feed a cat, feeds the mice.
THREE hundred ravens are scattered by one stone.
MAN is harder than a stone and more brittle than an egg.
IF you break the fast, better eat pork, not curds.
TO the donkey thorns taste better than hay.
BECAUSE of John hating St. John.
EYES see everything but themselves.
GRAVEDIGGERS have their own gravediggers too.
IF ONLY youth had knowledge and old age ability!
THE OLD man is not asked where he aches, but why he does not ache there.
A GOOD son needs no inheritance, the bad needs none.
THE OLDER one marries, the longer the nights.
LIFE is a stairway - some are going up, others are going down.
DEATH is closer than the shirt.
HE that believes in dreams, pastures the winds.
BLESSED wine, cursed drinking!
THE FIRST glass is for health, the second - for joy, the third - for fun, the fourth - for madness.
IF THE PRIEST is used to get drunk, the people does not sober at all.
THE WEALTHY man has even his crow laying him eggs.
MONEY tempts women, women tempt men.
HUNGER is a bigger master than the king.
HE that feels sorry for the shoe, loses the horse.
HE who keeps his old clothes, gains new ones too.
YOU monk, do you want us to give you in marriage?
THE SEA has decided to drown itself in the river.
BANDAGE up your finger and take a walk in the village to see how many medical people you will meet!
A WORD makes no hole, a pinch tears no underskirt.
A JOKE may have children born.