# Occitan: En mai un gous es magre, en mai las mouscos le picour (late 18th c. expression)



## poumairat

I'm assisting with the translation of a French journal from 1796-1798, and there is a single phrase that has stumped me (an English speaker) and several French-speaking translators, but we think it may be Occitan:

"_En mai un gous es magre, en mai las mouscos le picour_."

The phrase appears in the context of the author relating an incident in which all of his laundry is lost. By the way he underlines this and other phrases, it is clearly some common expression from the time. Perhaps similar in intent to the English expression, "easy come, easy go". A native French (and non-Occitan speaker) thought it might be something like, "In May the dog is skinny, in May the flies are pecking at it."

If anyone can shed light on what this phrase could mean in English (or French) -- and any context for the expression -- I'd be very grateful! Thanks


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## Dymn

I would suggest "the more... the more...".

I'm surprised a French speaker identified "_gous_" considering such a word doesn't exist in French. From what I see, this is used in the Aude department which is understandable since in neighbouring Catalan it's "_gos_".


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## Penyafort

I concur with Dymn. That "en mai" has nothing to do with the month but with the word "more", which is _mai _in Occitan. In Catalan a close sentence could be said: _Més un gos és magre, més les mosques el piquen._

So it surely means _The more a dog is lean, the more flies bite it. _Which means the same as the old proverb _The lean dog is all fleas_. In Spanish, _a perro flaco todo son pulgas _is still quite used. The proverb means that misfortune hits the most on those who are already in poor condition.


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## poumairat

Thanks ... that is very helpful! It's interesting that there is still an equivalent expression...

A couple of Occitan speakers on another language forum translated this similarly: "The skinnier the dog, the more the flies bite it." _En mai un gos es magre, en mai las moscas le pican._ (Looking back at the original handwritten journal, the writer actually wrote "picoun" not "picour".)

I wasn't sure if he meant something along the lines that the world kicks you when you're down, or that people take advantage of others' misfortunes. Your references to the proverb and Spanish expression seem to indicate it is more the former.


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## poumairat

...or maybe it's similar to the expression, "when it rains, it pours"?


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