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  What it means

  If February brings a sharp frost, winter will not last much longer. A hopeful proverb: a hard February means spring is near.

  Vocabulary

  • mróz — frost, hard freeze
  • ostro — sharply, harshly
  • trzymać — to hold, to grip; here: to persist
  • tedy — then, therefore (archaic)
  • niedługi — not long, short

  Grammar note

  'Trzyma' is third-person singular present of 'trzymać'. 'Tedy' is an archaic conjunction equivalent to modern 'więc' or 'zatem'.

  Cultural context

  In Polish folk belief, a bitterly cold February was seen as winter 'spending itself', leaving little cold left for March. This gave farmers hope for an early spring.

  Intermediate

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