Context:

He heard it at his grandma’s house in Jordan when he was around 6 years old. He says that the saying means “You are impatient.”

Text:

Original Script: بصلتك محروقة

Transliteration: Basiltak mahrou’a

Translation: Your onion is burnt

Thoughts:

This saying made little sense to me until I was told by someone else that onions burn quickly when being cooked. With that in mind, I made the connection that the impatient person is like a cooking onion: neither can wait for long. The purpose of this saying is to point out another person’s error in such a way that would have been easier to take than if it had been said plainly (“You’re impatient”). Although not technically a proverb, this saying does give a piece of advice in an indirect way.