Thursday

Arabic Proverb - Lion Fangs

This proverb, parable, saying or whatever you want to call it is a very popular one. If you say this to an Arabic speaking friend they will be very impressed with you, even if it's the only thing you know how to say in Arabic!



If you see the fangs of a lion showing, don't think the lion is smiling.

اذا رايت نيوب الليث بارزةً فلا تظن ان الليث يبتسم

There are 2 words used here that have common synonyms. The word you probably know for lion is أسد (asad). ليث means lion as well. Also, the word used here for fangs is نيوب , but أنياب (anyaab) is used as well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for this useful proverb... Proverbs are one of the first sentences I like to learn, studying foreign languages, since it make me focusing about single words... one of the first proverb I learnt in arabic in "كما تزرع تحصد " and moreover it'really true...
Thank you again

Ghalia said...

i'm an arabic girl
i'm impressed with ur arabic acsent, very good :)
and i like this proverb, it has a great meaning behind it

هذه اللغة العربية في شعر حافظ ابراهيم:
أنـا الـبحرُ فـي أحشائِهِ الدرُّ كَامِنٌ** فَـهَلْ سَـأَلُوا الغَوَّاصَ عَنْ
صَدَفَات

Anonymous said...

This proverb is the last line of a poem by the famous poet al-Mutanabbi. There are several references to it online. Here's one:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100705235650AAbbXdo