Flemish Proverbs by Jan Wierix (ca. 1568) | Hacker News Reader

Flemish Proverbs by Jan Wierix (ca. 1568)

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50 pointsHooke13 comments

I miss the meaning. Here's what I had to search for:

- "A whistling woman and a crowing hen are neither fit for God nor men" - It is not proper for a woman to engage in overtly masculine behavior. Source: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+whistling+woman+and+a...

- "The music of the rich is always pleasant, even if played on a jawbone" - I still don't know what this was supposed to mean.

I like how wikipedia presents the proverbs from Netherlandish Proverbs[1], with a list, an image, and the meaning.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs#List_of...

"play on a jawbone" is in the Netherlandish Proverbs Wikipedia article as "play on the pillory" = "attract attention to one's shameful acts" – in Dutch, "kaak" means both "jaw" and "pillory" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kaak#Dutch

so it's a visual pun that only makes sense in Dutch/Flemish. this is excellent!

People will put up with a lot of bullshit if they think the bulshitter is wealthy and they may benefit.

Literally big tech explained with just one proverb.

my french grandmother used to say that girls whistling made the holy virgin weep

I think the second mocks the inclination of humans to reflexively admire everything that high status (ie rich) people do or say. It is similar to this amusing Yiddish saying: https://www.yiddishwit.com/gallery/sing.html

It’s a bit weird to see a French translation of the Flemish proverb right in the middle of the engravings, although in a smaller type. The engravings are from the 16th century, already then there were apparently tensions between the Flemish and French speaking parts or classes in the region.

A cafe in the town I live in (Brno, Czech Republic) has one of their walls covered with a big mural painting of his, and I keep stumbling onto different versions of the drawings.

I wonder if it's because they are kind of weird that people are just drawn to them.

As a Flemish person, it's surprising to do how some of these still have variations in use today.

And it's disappointing how little I can find about these in Dutch.

Which ones are still in use? Do they have origins as Flemish proverbs or older? E.g., "blind leading the blind" reminds me of Matthew 15:14.

Shooting all your bolts (all uw pijlen verschieten) is still very commonly used. Knocking at a deaf man's door (aan dovemans deur kloppen) is still somewhat used, and variations like "for a deaf man's ears" (voor dovemans oren) is still common.

Im also pretty sure I've heard dialect versions of the salesman one and the arsehole ones.

Well, “Flemish” is also a secondary name for South Dutch. It’s a very interesting collection, I kind of wish some were included in the “Canon van Vlaanderen”.

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