كانت خالتى وخالتك، واتفرقوا الخالات
Kanet khalti we khaltak w’ etfarraqet el khalat
Translation: My aunt and yours were friends, and then they parted ways.
Meaning: There is a powerful, almost story-telling quality to this proverb, which is unfortunately fading away from current use. Instead of saying blandly that “circumstances brought us together, then drove us apart,” the saying brought invokes a world of family ties and social bonds that come together and then integrate. We - just nephews in this imagery – have no hand in this bigger scheme of things. So we just watch as the bonds that brought us together founder, and our ties come undone.
Source: Egyptian Proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center for Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawkat
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