ما لقوش فى الورد عيب، قالوا "يا احمر الخدين".
Mal'oush fil ward eib, qali ya ahmar el khaddein.
Translation: They couldn't find anything wrong with roses, so they said, "hey, red cheeks."
Meaning: People would try find fault with others at any cost, even when the object of their criticism is above reproach. The image this saying summons is one of verbal insults passed around in a form of banter, almost in the style qafya, or rhymed insults that are exchanged in a light-hearted way as a form of entertainment. Qafya was alive in Egypt well into the mid twentieth century, and one of its top practitioners was Naguib Mahfouz, the famed novelist. Red cheeks is not an insult, of course, and the person using it as an insult is the one worthy of derision.
Translated by Nabil Shawkat
Source: Egyptian Proverbs
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