The Early Bird and the Gold

.

FireSky, originally uploaded by Karey46.

There is this proverb: The Early Bird catches the Worm. I am no early bird, I must admit. And when I am forced to be one, I definitely won’t be able to catch any worm. It takes me quite a time to get into working mode. That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t been able yet to take sunrise pictures, in contrast to my dear web friend, Karey. But I digress.

Although the above saying is used more and more in its German translation, we in Germany have a somewhat different expression: “The early hour has gold in its mouth.” Sounds strange, doesn’t it? The last days I kept on thinking about the meaning of this sentence. I am not a dentist, so I don’t know since what time it has been usual to replace one’s own teeth with gold teeth. But people who do that need money, a lot of money. Gold teeth have been a way to show other people: “I am rich, I am productive, I am successful”.(Today, I think we tend to hide them, which is more expensive.)

So the saying “The early hour has gold in its mouth” simply means: When you get up early in the morning, you will be successful, you will get rich, and then you can afford a lot of gold teeth…