السلف تلف والرد خسارة
El salaf talaf wel radd khosarah
Translation: Borrowing is waste and paying back is a loss.
Meaning: People who borrow money tend to be wasteful and unreliable. The rhythmic brevity of the sentence suggests an educational proverb, something that a teacher or a man or religion would say. The saying may have been popular with the transition from rural to urban life, as it is easier for the borrowers to melt into the masses of a big city, so the risk of lending to dodgy characters is even bigger than back in the village.
Source: ُEgyptian proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center For Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawka
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