"If it's darkness we're having let it be extravagant." --Jane Kenyon
So if it's darkness we're having in 2017...let these Arab proverbs embrace your woes in their full glory!
Disclaimer: To all the perky optimists out there, we apologize for the sombre vibes... but please, do teach us your ways!
1. "Inside me, there is a great man ... but he's in a coma"
A remarkable alter-ego exists in some deep pit inside you. He is everything you aspire to become, but he seems to have dozed into a long, endless slumber... or rather a coma... your cynical mind says he's probably dead.
2. "Zift happens"
Same zift all day, everyday.
3. "If luck were a magnet, then I am definitely made of wood"
You attract the negative and repel the positive, so forget the blue kharzat and bakhour, your bad luck is here to stay.
4. "A stranger...and then a friend...a lover...and then a...block"
You know this mantra all too well, so you base your entire relationships on the assumption that you will probably end up blocking your lovers on social media... so why bother in the first place, right?
Shakespearean tragedies have got nothing on 21st century love and despair.
5. "Life will play us and mock us"
You know how much fun you have while teasing your cat with a laser pointer? Well, it sometimes like you're the cat and the universe is carrying the laser pointer.
6. "The unlucky one finds bones even in tender meat"
This might just be an Egyptian twist on Murphy's law (Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong).
The Egyptians are here to remind you that you're forever doomed with bad luck. Things will go wrong against all odds, at least that's what the cynic in you believes.
7. "If you find anything more beautiful than sleep...wake me up"
Like Hemingway once said, "Life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?"
8. "There's a demon in everything"
We really can't get enough of quirky Egyptian skepticism.