Parallel & Proverbs

What the Spanish proverb de tal palo, tal astilla really says about parents and children, who says it in Valera and Pereda, and how Russian, Arabic and Korean picture the same inheritance.

What the Japanese proverb about the talented hawk hiding its claws really asks of the hawk — and how Mandarin, the Shiji and a Latin historian of Alexander place the hidden strength.

Why Russians say a word is not a sparrow — you might catch the sparrow — and how Mandarin and Persian mark the same moment with a chariot, a spilled bowl and a wound.

A Korean proverb says a habit at three lasts until eighty — but its word for habit also means the manners owed to elders, and its three was counted in a system that made newborns one.

A Spanish proverb rhymes temperament and bearing all the way to the grave — and its own paper trail runs through Catalan dictionaries that spent decades unsure whether the word was genio or natural.