Photo by: Bassam El-Zoghby
عشمتنى بالحلق تقبت انا ودانى لا الحلق جانى ولا كلام الناس كفانى
Ashemteni bil halaq taqqabt ana wedani, la el halaq gani wa la kalam el nas kaffani
Translation: You promised to get me earrings, so I pierced my ears; I neither received the earrings nor did people stop mocking me.
Meaning: I acted on your promises and now I look stupid. Usually people use the first two words of this popular saying “ashemteni bel halaq” and rely on the knowledge of the listener to guess the rest. The saying is very much in use, whenever someone is let down by a friend.
Source: Egyptian Proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center for Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawkat
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