جا يكحلها عماها 

Ga yekahhalha amaha

Translation: Instead of applying kohl to her eyes, he blinded her.

Meaning: This proverb, still in use, is about a ploy that backfires. Let’s say someone wants to defuse tensions between protagonists by telling a story, then the story he tells ends up provoking the antagonists into a worse fight. This is when you use this proverb to refer to his botched intervention.

Source: Egyptian Proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center for Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,

Translated by: Nabil Shawkat