Category Archives: Folk speech

German Proverb: Bandaid is Sand

Background: My friend, ZK, comes from a German family and is bilingual in English and German. I asked her if she knew any German proverbs, and this was her response:

ZK: “The last proverb I can come up with is Unter dem Pflaster liegt der Strand, which translates to ‘under the bandaid is the sand,’ so like under the hard things there is something better but you can’t get to it.”

Analysis: As is the theme with all of the German proverbs my friend told me about, there’s a highly prevalent degree of delayed gratification here, a prioritization of hard work, sacrifice, and eventual payoff (hopefully). It’s also interesting how most of these proverbs fall under a pessimistic mentality–if the goal is to if not inspire, at least offer wisdom for future generations, that wisdom appears to be coming out of some incredibly jaded mouths. Which, once again, would make sense given Germany’s history.

German Proverb: Shirts Without Pockets

Background: My friend, ZK, comes from a German family and is bilingual in English and German. I asked her if she knew any German proverbs, and this was her response:

ZK: “I grew up with a lot of proverbs. My great-grandma’s favorite saying was das letzte Hemd hat keine Taschen, and it translates to ‘your last shirt has no pockets,’ which means you can’t take anything with you when you die. She said it every night before she went to sleep, and I feel like it says something about German culture.”

Analysis: My friend frequently talks about her family’s struggles growing up in Post-War East Germany, and I think this proverb in particular is strengthened by that context. This proverb is particularly anti-materialistic, and I think her great-grandmother saying it as a nightly sort of ritual is indicative of an ideal or desired mentality as reflective of a larger societal belief or priority. Its brevity makes it memorable, and I can imagine that the daily ritual of it indicates that choosing the anti-materialistic route was not instinctual, or always desired.

German Proverb: Day Before Night

Background: My friend, ZK, comes from a German family and is bilingual in English and German. I asked her if she knew any German proverbs, and this was her response:

ZK: “Oh wait, and there’s also Man soll den Tag nicht vor dem Abend Ioben which directly translates to ‘you can’t praise the day before the night’ so like you can’t say that something is good before the entirety of it is done because you never know what can still happen.”

Analysis: Based on my conversations with my friend, I think this proverb reflects a lot of the cultural values she was instilled with growing up–delayed gratification in some ways, a more conservative view on upcoming events and occurrences, a general sense of wariness that would be logical with Germany’s history. The realistic interpretation of the proverb in conjunction with its metaphorical meaning make its double entendre more significant.

“The Mountain’s Out!”

Background: My informant, EV, grew up in Puyallup, Washington, but currently goes to USC. Interview conducted in person.

Me: “Do you know any Washington folklore? Sayings, jokes, stories, etc.?”

EV: “Oh, I know one. I never say this, but I always hear like, older people say it all the time. So for context, in Washington there’s one main mountain, Mount Rainier, that pretty much everyone can see from like, their backyard if they live in Western Washington. Sometimes it’s covered by like fog or clouds or whatever, but especially on a sunny or clear day it can become visible. So people call Rainier “The Mountain,” because it’s like the main mountain, so when you can finally see it after the rain clears up or something, people will be like, ‘Look! The Mountain’s out!’ And that’s a perfectly normal thing for people to say with no context. Everyone will know exactly what you’re talking about. Like I didn’t realize how abnormal it was until I came to USC and people wouldn’t comment on like, the visibility of the mountains on a daily basis. Just a silly little Washington thing.”

Analysis: I find the colloquial/vernacular usage of this phrase to be really interesting. Once again indicating in-group/out-group behavior, where it almost becomes a right of passage to have the knowledge and experience to also be able to refer to Mount Rainier simply as “The Mountain.” I think the phrase also says a lot about the significance of the mountain to the culture and priorities in the area (nature), where it not only serves as a geographic landmark to admire and judge direction off of, but also becomes another core component to distinguishing the in-group from the out-group–to intentionally or perhaps unintentionally select Mount Rainier as the symbol for central identity. The phrase indicates a certain degree of rarity in seeing the mountain, so its presence isn’t taken for granted, and worth noting even in everyday conversation.

Persian Roof Proverb

  1. They go so far up the roof they fall back. 
  2. When someone goes too far into something or pushes themselves too far, it ends up being more counterintuitive than helpful to their initial goal. 

Context:

The speaker presented this when discussing a conversation they had with their mom, bringing this up believing it to be a humorous moment. The discussion that the speaker had with their mom was about veganism, which prompted the speaker’s mother to respond to the explanation of veganism with this proverb, which while a persian proverb, was performed in English.

The performance was done in a manner of telling the story about this conversation with the speaker’s mother, wanting to make a point about how the mother’s response to veganism was humorous, since it was so negative. 

Personal Thoughts:

This piece is quite interesting as it is not only a humorous proverb to use in the context of veganism, clearly showing how when used in this specific context, it is meant to show how the speaker’s mother believes that some vegan practices may go too far. Culturally, many Persian cuisines are meat-based and also, food is a highly important part of Persian culture, as it can be representative of many different things. While in the West it is common to have “vegan alternatives”, that may not be the case for other cultures and the way something is made and what types of food is presented in the dish is highly important, thus it would be understood why some vegan practices may prompt this kind of response.