Meaning & Analysis
Before parsley sprouts or comes up from the ground, it is (supposedly) observed nine times by the devil—suggesting its growth is difficult, delayed, or fraught with superstition.
Insights
Obstacles Before Fruition
The proverb metaphorically suggests that worthwhile things often face repeated hindrances, delays, or unseen adversities before coming to fruition, echoing the challenges hidden beneath the surface of new beginnings.
Superstition and Suspicion
It reflects the ancient superstitions and mysterious reputation attached to certain plants (here, parsley), where their slow or uncertain emergence is attributed to supernatural interference or bad omens.
Persistence Despite Adversity
By enduring the devil’s gaze nine times, the parsley’s eventual growth becomes a symbol for persistence and the capacity to overcome unseen difficulties.
Historical Symbolism
Parsley was historically regarded with suspicion in European folklore—associated with death, the supernatural, or bad luck, partly due to its slow germination. The proverb encapsulates these fears, embodying the belief that the plant was somehow cursed or 'watched' by malign forces.
Literary and Cultural Resonance
Such sayings are widespread in rural and agricultural societies, where the mysteries of plant growth fostered a rich tradition of botanical folklore. In English, Italian, and French cultures, parsley’s association with evil or misfortune is echoed in similar proverbs and warnings about sowing it.
Psychological Dimensions
Psychologically, the proverb dramatizes the human tendency to explain frustrating or inexplicable delays through personification and supernatural agency, projecting anxiety about uncertainty and patience onto the natural world.
Rhetorical Devices
Personification
The proverb personifies the devil as an active observer of parsley’s birth, animating the growth process and lending it an eerie, memorable quality.
Hyperbole
The exaggeration of the devil ‘seeing’ the parsley nine times before it emerges heightens the sense of mysterious difficulty and dramatizes the superstition.
Symbolism
Parsley becomes a symbol for difficult beginnings or enterprises haunted by unseen resistance, amplifying the proverb’s resonance.
Transcription
Quotations
Or else the weed [parsley], which still before it's borne Nine times the devill sees.
Cross References
- See APP., p. 483.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.