про сверчков и медок...

[dalai-lahme.livejournal.com]

Мне интересно произхождение двух поговорок... никак не пойму.

"Всяк сверчок знай свой шесток".
Какой тут шесток? Разве сверчки сидят на шестах как курицы?

"Люби медок, люби холодок".
Что такое медок? Французское вино (Medoc)? Мед? А почему тогда холод?

Comments

[ayelienne]

Would you mind translating what the question was for us beginners out here? :)

[dalai-lahme.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure :)

I was wondering about the ethymology of two russian sayings.
The first one goes

"Всяк сверчок знай свой шесток" which in translation would be "Every cricket should know its place by the oven". Russian crickets are thought to live behind the oven so this saying means "Everybody should know his proper place". The difficulty here is in the double meaning of шест. The usual meaning is pole (like in flag pole), but the second, rare meaning is "place by the oven". Thats why I didnt get the meaning at first.

The second saying is"Люби медок, люби холодок".
Медок here, as I got told, does not mean Medoc red wine, but is diminutive for мед which is honey. So in translation, this means "If you are fond of honey, be fond of the cold". I still did not get a satisfying answer about this one. Why the cold? Is honey in Russia traditionally stored in cold places? Or where does this stem from?

[ayelienne]

thanks! (спасибо!) :)