Sana plays on a cloth sling hanging from a signalling pole as smoke from a garbage dump rises next to a railway track (Photo: Reuters)
الزين ما يكملش
El zein ma yekmalsh
Translation: The beautiful one is never perfect.
Meaning: This proverb is still in use, although urban folks would use the word “el-helw” instead of the country equivalent, “el-zein.” When you admire someone very much and then you discover that they have a fault, either with their personality or looks, this is when you say this proverb, meaning that “well, no one is perfect!”
Source: Egyptian Proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center for Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawkat
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