Meaning & Analysis
The physical act of pouring water into a sieve is inherently pointless, as the sieve's perforated nature means it cannot hold liquid, making the effort to fill it completely futile.
Insights
Wasted Effort
It symbolizes any action, labor, or endeavor that is inherently pointless and doomed to fail, representing a complete and predictable waste of energy, resources, or time.
Unreceptive Counsel
Represents the act of giving advice, knowledge, or warnings to a person who is incapable of or unwilling to accept or retain it, making the communication useless.
Unrequited Love
Illustrates the experience of investing deep emotional energy or love into a person or relationship that cannot hold or return that affection, leading to emotional exhaustion and loss.
Classical Mythology
The proverb evokes the Greek myth of the Danaides, who were condemned in the underworld to eternally carry water in a leaky vessel or sieve, lending the image a sense of tragic, unending futility rooted in classical antiquity.
Literary Versatility
As demonstrated by its use in literature from Barclay to Shakespeare, the metaphor is powerfully adaptable, applied to diverse contexts such as keeping secrets, unrequited love, and offering futile advice, showcasing its broad cultural resonance.
Psychology of Futility
The act highlights a psychological tendency to persist in a hopeless task out of stubbornness or blind optimism, ignoring clear evidence that the effort is being wasted on an unreceptive or flawed object.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphorical Imagery
The core of the proverb is its powerful and universally understood visual metaphor, which immediately conveys the concept of hopeless and wasted effort.
Hyperbole
The proverb uses exaggeration to emphasize the absolute impossibility of a task, framing it not merely as difficult but as fundamentally irrational and pointless.
Symbolism
'Water' symbolically represents any valuable but transient resource—such as effort, words, or love—while the 'sieve' represents a flawed, unreceptive, or inappropriate vessel, making the loss inevitable.
Transcription
Quotations
Cribro aquam haurire.
As he that fetcheth Water in a Sive.
Wymen ar no kepars of councell It goeth through them as water trough a syue.
Hee drawes water with a siue that wil learne without a booke, or without teaching.
Whom your fair speeches might haue made beleeue That water could be carrid in a seeve.
[It is Folie] to draw Water in a Riddle.
(You poure).
Hee that hopes to carry water in a sieue, to root out a vice that hath been long planted, or to make woemen good with stripes, may very easily be deceiued.
You may as soon hold water in a Sive.
To go fetch water with a sieve, viz. labour in vain.
To draw water in a sieve.
(You pour).
Shakespeare Citations
Thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve.
Yet in this captious and intenible sieve I still pour in the waters of my love.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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