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Based on some searches it appears to be "Budi skroman jer si stvoren od zemlje. Budi plemenit jer si stvoren od zvezda." / "Буди скроман јер си створен од земље

by cyphar 6y ago

Based on some searches it appears to be "Budi skroman jer si stvoren od zemlje. Budi plemenit jer si stvoren od zvezda." / "Буди скроман јер си створен од земље. Буди племенит јер си створен од звезда." But note that "noble" isn't really the right translation for "plemenit" (despite what Google translate might tell you) -- it's closer in meaning to "selfless" or "generous" (which you could argue are noble attributes, but "noble" has certain connotations in English that "plemenit" doesn't). But to me it still doesn't sound right. I asked my mom (native Serbian speaker) and she said she's not heard of it as a proverb, and some Googling reveals that native Serbians are confused why foreigners seem to attribute it to us[1]. I also weirdly found a lot of questions on Quora and Yahoo answers asking for people to translate it to Serbian -- which explains why the proverb sounds slightly strange when read in Serbian. My guess is that this is actually some recent English proverb which someone decided to attribute to us (though it is neat that "zemlje" and "zvezda" do have a certain kind of rhyme). [1]: https://www.svetnauke.org/95-srpska-poslovica https://www.svetnauke.org/95-srpska-poslovica

afarrell 6y ago
Perhaps its an English proverb which caught on amidst a community of Serbian expats/immigrants.
- cyphar 6y ago
  Maybe, but it doesn't sound right when written in Serbian. For comparison, here is an actual Serbian proverb literally translated to English: "Bolje vrabac u ruci, nego golub na grani" means "better to have a sparrow in your hand than a pidgeon in a tree." Far less poetic than the native English bird-holding proverb "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" (which sounds strange when translated to Serbian as well -- "ptica u ruci vredi dve ptice u šumi", despite the fact it happens to rhyme). Proverbs and sayings have a specific kind of poetry in their native language which doesn't survive translation. It seems much more likely to me that it was simply misattributed.
- oska 6y ago
  Based on what cyphar is saying in this thread, my (somewhat cynical) take is that someone made it up recently and tried to give it an air of 'old wisdom' by falsely attributing it as a Serbian proverb. (I also think this supposed saying is quite hokey and dumb. The earth is as much 'made of stars' as we are.)
  - EL_Loco 6y ago
    Every now and then somebody I know will post a photo with a proverb mistakenly attributed to some historical figure. It's not uncommon for the proverb to be very simple, not very deep, such that I immediately discard it as made-up and not really written by the famous figure. There's actually quite a lot of this. Many bad lines attributed to great poets float around the net.

by cyphar 6y ago

afarrell 6y ago

Perhaps its an English proverb which caught on amidst a community of Serbian expats/immigrants.

cyphar 6y ago
Maybe, but it doesn't sound right when written in Serbian. For comparison, here is an actual Serbian proverb literally translated to English: "Bolje vrabac u ruci, nego golub na grani" means "better to have a sparrow in your hand than a pidgeon in a tree." Far less poetic than the native English bird-holding proverb "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" (which sounds strange when translated to Serbian as well -- "ptica u ruci vredi dve ptice u šumi", despite the fact it happens to rhyme). Proverbs and sayings have a specific kind of poetry in their native language which doesn't survive translation. It seems much more likely to me that it was simply misattributed.
oska 6y ago
Based on what cyphar is saying in this thread, my (somewhat cynical) take is that someone made it up recently and tried to give it an air of 'old wisdom' by falsely attributing it as a Serbian proverb. (I also think this supposed saying is quite hokey and dumb. The earth is as much 'made of stars' as we are.)
- EL_Loco 6y ago
  Every now and then somebody I know will post a photo with a proverb mistakenly attributed to some historical figure. It's not uncommon for the proverb to be very simple, not very deep, such that I immediately discard it as made-up and not really written by the famous figure. There's actually quite a lot of this. Many bad lines attributed to great poets float around the net.