What are some Portuguese proverbs about water?

Carlos Afonso

Knows Portuguese

Well, there are a few, maybe a lot, but the following are probably the best known. Perhaps there is an equivalent in English for each. If I know the equivalent I say so; if not, I just translate the proverb into English.

• “Água mole em pedra dura tanto dá até que fura”. Equivalent in English: “Water dropping day by day wears the hardest rock away”. Meaning: eventhough a rock is hard it does not resist if water keeps falling on it, i.e. if you insist and do not give up you can achieve even the hardest challenges.

• “Água o deu, água o levou” (“Given by water, taken by water”). Meaning: things that you get without effort, will soon go away.

• “Não se pode ter sol na eira e água no nabal” (“You cannot have sun in the terrace and water in the garden”), Meaning: you cannot expect that everything goes as you wish.

• “Muita água vai passar/passou debaixo da ponte”. I don’t know if there is a direct equivalent in English. There is, though, this expression, “Water under the bridge”, meaning, it is something that happened a long time ago. The proverb in Portuguese translates into English as “A lot of water went/will go under the bridge”, meaning a lot of time has gone by/will go by before a result be achieved.

• “Águas passadas não movem moinhos” (“Water that has run down the stream will not make the water mill work”). Meaning: you should not appeal to something that worked in the past to solve something that you face today.

• “(Foi) a gota que fez transbordar o copo”. Equivalent in English: “ (It was) the last straw that broke the camel´s back”. Meaning: there is a limit to unpleasant situations and there is a moment when you cannot bear them anymore, so you burst.