Persian proverbs
Among the linguistic phenomena that characterize the culture of a people there is undoubtedly the proverb; it is a linguistic form, mainly in oral form, through which the wisdom of the ancestors about daily living is transmitted. Proverbs have to do with problems, joys and worries of everyday life, so they are a reflection of human life itself. The Persian language, like other cultures, is endowed with a whole series of proverbs collected in various collections and paremiological dictionaries. Some of these proverbs are presented by the doctor, Maryam Mavaddat, PhD in Turkey, Iran and Central Asia who compares the Persian proverbs with the Italian method by highlighting how both the same message and the same teaching are conveyed using similar or completely equivalent images. Dr. Mavaddat is also working at the same time on a book containing other Persian proverbs translated into Italian.
Willing is power (خواستن توانستن است)
Volere is power
The cat can not reach the flesh and says it stinks (گربه دستش به گوشت نمی رسه میگه بو میده)
When the fox doesn't get to the grapes, he says it's unripe
As you can see, in both languages are used similar images taken from the animal world, the cat in the Persian proverb and the fox in the Italian, while, the desired but not achieved is always food stamp, the meat in the first and the grapes in the second.
Aiming two goals with one arrow (با یک تیر دو نشان زدن)
Kill two birds with one stone
In the previous proverbs we intend to receive two or more profits with a single action or a single task, pigeons as two objectives.
Subsequent proverbs indicate when a liar is discovered because he can not remember everything he has invented.
The liar has little memory (دروغگو کم حافظه هست)
Lies have short legs
The proverb Persian chickpeas of any minestrone is equivalent to the Italian idiomatic expression "you are like parsley"; both refer to the food world, the Persian proverb has its roots in Persian gastronomy where one of the characteristic ingredients is made up of chickpeas. The message conveyed is precisely referring to someone who is involved in any event.
The chickpeas of any minestrone (نخود هر آش)
You're like parsley
A swallow does not spring translates what in Persian is rendered by the phrase "spring does not come with a single flower". However, the semantic area is the elements of the spring period, which has always been an emblem of change; but the two proverbs seem to mean precisely that it can not be a signal, the swallow is the flower, which determines the change of a rooted fact.
Spring does not come with just one flower (با یک گل بهار نمیشه)
The proverb a swallow does not make spring
One of the most used proverbs in Italian is "the wolf loses its fur but not its vice", which is equivalent to the Persian "abandonment of habit causes disease": here the two semantic areas are different because in the first one is in the world animal and in the second one is on a more abstract level but in any case there is a juxtaposition between vice and disease placing them on a negative level.
Abandonment of habit causes illness (ترک عادت موجب مرض است)
The wolf loses the hair but not the vice
Equally common is the proverb "to play with fire" rendered from the Persian with "to play with the lion's tail". Here the message conveyed is to highlight the occurrence of a negative and dangerous consequence to a particularly demanding and risky event.
Playing with the lion's tail (با دم شیر بازی کردن)
Playing with fire
The Italian proverb "can che baia non borde" translates the Persian proverb "do not be afraid of chatting too much, you must be afraid of those who are taciturn". Both want to indicate that we must be cautious not of those who seem to have dangerous and aggressive characteristics, but rather of those towards whom there is not the slightest suspicion.
Do not be afraid of those who talk too much, you must be frightened by those who are taciturn (از آن نترس که های هوی دارد از آن بترس که سر به توی دارد)
The barking dog does not bite
The proverb that indicates when you despise the favors you receive or what you live in are in Italian "spit on the plate where you eat" and in Persian "eat salt and break the salt shaker".
Eat salt and break the saltcellar (نمک را خوردن و نمکدان شکستن)
He spits on the plate where he eats