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  What it means

  A fly does for a dog, a turnip does for a peasant. Each creature makes do with what it has; humble food is still food.

  Vocabulary

  • chłop — peasant, man
  • rzepa — turnip

  Grammar note

  Parallel dative constructions: 'dobra psu' (good for the dog) and 'dobra chłopowi' (good for the peasant), with 'a' as a contrastive conjunction.

  Cultural context

  The turnip was a staple of the Polish peasant diet. This variant grounds the proverb in rural social reality.

  Intermediate

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