Mongolian

Mongolian proverbs, at a glance

• Alone, you cannot make the whole — neither a fire nor a family.

  Ганц мод гал болохгүй, ганц хүн айл болохгүй.

  Gants mod gal bolokhgüi, gants khün ail bolokhgüi

  Literally: A single tree does not become fire; a single person does not become a household.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Mandarin (独木不成林) — the same tree, but the missing whole is a forest, not a fire
  • Russian (Один в поле не воин) — the solitary recast as a soldier who cannot win a war alone
  • Zulu (ubuntu) — the claim taken all the way down: personhood itself is made of others

• A child is one treasure; raising one well is a thousand.

  Хүүхэд нэг эрдэнэ, хүмүүжил мянган эрдэнэ

  Khüükhed neg erdene, khümüüjil myangan erdene

  Literally: A child is one treasure, upbringing is a thousand treasures

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Maori — people are the greatest thing, asked and answered three times; but it stops at having people, where the Mongolian insists that having the child is only the first treasure — the other thousand come from what you do next
  • Sanskrit — deer do not walk into a sleeping lion's mouth: potential without effort produces nothing, the same arithmetic the Mongolian applies to a child who is born but not raised
  • Mongolian — the dissent from inside the same tradition: what is learned in childhood stays in the bones, which means nature sets the terms and upbringing only works with what was already there

• The counsel of the old is precious — weigh it like gold.

  Ахмадын сургаал алт.

  Akhmadyn surgaal alt

  Literally: The elder's teaching is gold.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Spanish — the wry version: even the devil's wisdom comes from age, not from being the devil
  • Japanese — experience as earned merit, the years' achievement above the turtle's shell
  • Mandarin (不听老人言，吃亏在眼前) — the blunt version: ignore the old, and the loss is in front of you

• Danger comes under cover of the storm — stay alert when things are at their worst.

  Чоно борооноор.

  Chono boroonoor

  Literally: The wolf, by means of the rain.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Russian (ловить рыбу в мутной воде) — the same murk, read from the opportunist's side, not the victim's
  • Mandarin (趁火打劫) — chaos as a window for the strike; one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems
  • Latin — the moral version: it is the opportunity that makes the thief

• Every creature belongs to where it came from; the homeland draws its own back.

  Шувуу үүртээ, хүн нутагтаа.

  Shuvuu üürtee, khün nutagtaa

  Literally: The bird to its nest, the person to their homeland.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Mandarin (落叶归根) — the falling leaf returning to its root, a homecoming completed in age and death
  • Greek/Latin (Homer via Erasmus) — Odysseus longing to see even the smoke rising from Ithaca
  • Russian — even a handful of one's own soil is dear; belonging to the very earth

• A good horse responds to one whip; a good person responds to one word

  Сайн морь нэг ташуурын зайтай, сайн хүн нэг үгийн зайтай

  Sain' mori neg tashuuryn zaitai, sain' khün neg ügiin zaitai

  Literally: Good horse — one whip's distance; good person — one word's distance

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Latin — *verbum sapienti sat est*, the same observation made in the Roman comic theater, with the wise listener doing all the work
  • Italian — *a buon intenditor poche parole*, the Latin's Romance-language descendant, courtier rather than playwright
  • Japanese — *一を聞いて十を知る*, the same observation reframed as perception rather than response: the worthy listener hears one and infers nine

• An old horse knows the way.

  Хөгшин морь зам мэднэ

  Khögshin mor' zam medne

  Literally: Old horse road knows

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Mandarin (Han Feizi) — same image, but the road is a military supply route and the wisdom is strategic rather than survival
  • Spanish — age-as-wisdom with no horse; the claim is grammatically the same, the temperament dryly heretical
  • Japanese — accumulated years outweigh natural armour; the metaphor turns to the turtle, the metric is the same

• A tiger at home, a mouse outside

  Гэртээ бар, гадаа хулгана

  Gertee bar, gadaa khulgana

  Literally: At-home tiger, outside mouse

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Japanese — Benkei inside, Jizō outside; the same observation in two named figures from religion and literature
  • Mandarin — the contempt compressed into three characters and a single domestic image
  • Russian — the divide moved off the threshold and into the room, where it tracks the size of the opponent rather than the door

• Together we are strong; alone, each is weak.

  Олуул бол хүчтэй.

  Oluul bol khüchtei

  Literally: When together, there is strength.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Swahili — unity is strength; the same claim stripped to its essence
  • Korean — even a sheet of paper is lighter when lifted together
  • Russian — one man in the field is not a warrior; the solitary fighter cannot win

• United, the small overcome what none of them could face alone.

  Эвтэй шаазгай ингэ барьдаг.

  Evtei shaazgai inge bardag

  Literally: Magpies in concord bring down a she-camel.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Swahili — the bare maxim, unity is strength, with no animal to carry it
  • Greek (Aesop) — the claim proved by demonstration: bound, unbreakable; loosed, snapped one by one
  • Mandarin (众志成城) — unity not as predation but as architecture, a wall raised from a crowd's resolve

• What has proven itself through time is worth more than the untested new.

  Хуучин цагаан эсгий шинэ хар эсгийгээс дээр.

  Khuuchin tsagaan esgii shine khar esgiigees deer

  Literally: Old white felt is better than new black felt.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Japanese — the years' merit surpasses even the turtle's shell; age accrues a value hardness alone cannot
  • Mandarin — aged ginger is still the hottest; the older variety retains a sharpness that youth lacks
  • Spanish — the devil knows more for being old than for being the devil; experience outweighs nature

• What is formed in the child is fixed in the adult.

  Багын зан ясанд шингэнэ.

  Bagyn zan yasand shingene

  Literally: Childhood character soaks into the bone.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Korean (세 살 버릇 여든까지 간다) — the same claim, audited: a habit at three runs to eighty
  • Russian — the body, not the cradle: only the grave corrects what is set
  • Spanish — temperament as bearing, carried with a rhyme to the tomb

• What shaped you in hardship is not something you can put aside.

  Чоно нутгаа мартдаггүй.

  Chono nutgaa martdagüi

  Literally: The wolf does not forget its homeland.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Mandarin — falling leaves return to the roots; what grows far remembers where it came from
  • Russian — even a handful of one's own soil is dear; the steppe herder and the Russian peasant share the same pull toward origin

• Where there is no comparison, even the least becomes the greatest.

  Адгийн ноён албатдаа баатар.

  Adgiin noyon albatdaa baatar

  Literally: The worst lord is a hero to his own subjects.

  Mongolian · Mongolia

  Set beside

  • Latin (Erasmus) — in the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king; the Western canonical form
  • Arabic — same observation, with the one-eyed elevated to outright royalty
  • Spanish — the one-eyed king again, by way of the Iberian inheritance of Erasmus