by Evelina Drouga

The English saying ‘don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’ expresses the popular view on how unfortunate hastiness and superficiality can be. According to a different version, this saying wants to point out that it is not wrong to make plans and dreams but, in order to fulfill them, we have to be cautious, realistic and not just day dreamers.

In Greek, there is the equivalent popular thought ‘όποιος βιάζεται σκοντάφτει’.  We can see  the same idea exists in both languages. Where did this phrase originate and what does it relate to?

There is a beautiful story called ‘The Milkmaid and her pail’ in the English folk culture which tells the story of a young country-girl who, while walking her way to sell a jug of milk at the marketplace, was thinking of how to invest the money she would earn from the sold milk. Unfortunately, carried away by her daydreaming, she tripped, the jug fell and broke. The milk slopped and her dreams were now lost with it, too!

This story reminds us of a similar folktale of Aesop: ‘Η χωριατοπούλα και η κανάτα με το γάλα’ and shows us how a story, beginning from the Greek antiquity traveled all the way to the English folk culture and it is still told today. That is the magic of  language!

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_milkmaid_and_her_pail#The_Western_fable   http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/don-t-count-your-chickens-before-they-hatch

 βλ.Ο Κόσμος των Παραμυθιών,τ.3,Αθήνα 1971