Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.29162/pv.42.1.1008
From translation to proverb: Cine sapă groapa altuia cade singur în ea / Whoever digs a pit for others shall fall into it
Adina Chirilă
*
Ioan Milică
orcid.org/0000-0002-7226-6946
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This research examines the genesis of a well-known Romanian proverb from both philological and translation studies perspectives: Cine sapă groapa altuia cade singur în ea / Whoever digs a pit for others will fall into it. The aim of the research is to determine in which historical period of the cultural development of the Romanian literary language it is possible to ascertain the existence of a popular proverb with an existence independent of the biblical prototype from which it originates. The primary methodology is drawn from diachronic linguistics, more precisely the comparative-historical method, supplemented by linguistic and stylistic textual analysis. By studying both concordances and divergences, it is possible to identify and interpret an important moment in the cultural context of the 17th century. This is the period in which the translators of biblical and popular literature of the time became aware of the emergence of a proverb that follows a different cultural trajectory from that of the biblical translations. Furthermore, the research argues in favour of the idea that proverbs are not fixed-form constructions, but miniature texts of wisdom, whose form and meaning vary from one era to another.
Keywords
proverbs, wisdom literature, Bible translation, Biblicisms, Romanian language and culture
Hrčak ID:
334040
URI
Publication date:
25.7.2025.
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