Walls have ears

[nimak]

Macedonian:

И ѕидовите имаат уши! (I dzidóvite ímaat úši!) lit. "The-walls have ears too!"

 

[ThomasK]

in Persian: wall has mouse and mouse has ear[s].

Where is that mouse? ;-)

 

[ThomasK]

These are special in my view:

< Campus habet oculos, silva aures.

Here's the Welsh equivalent: Mae llygaid gan y perthi a chlustiau gan y cloddiau.
Literally: “There are eyes with the hedges and ears with the embankments.”
I.e. “Hedges have eyes and embankments have ears.”

In Tunisian Arabic: en-nhar bi-3weenaatu, w illeel bi-wdhiinaatu The day with its eyes (has eyes) and the night with its ears (has ears).

I love these, but I do not have a clue as for the origin of field eyes and forest ears (here I could guess something), hedges' eyes and embankment eyes. And i am still looking for the mouse in #52!

 

[nimak]

Macedonian:

И ѕидовите имаат уши! (I dzidóvite ímaat úši!) lit. "The-walls have ears too!"

I didn't mention the other variants.

There is a variant with "wall" in singular. Plus, depending on which definite article you would use (Macedonian has 3 definite articles) it can be:

И ѕидот има уши! (I dzídot íma úši!) lit. "The-wall has ears too!"
И ѕидон има уши! (I dzídon íma úši!) lit. "The-wall has ears too!"

There are another similar proverbs mentioning "water" and "fence":

И водата има уши! (I vódata íma úši!) lit. "The-water has ears too!"
И водана има уши! (I vódana íma úši!) lit. "The-water has ears too!"

Ѕидот уши има, плотот очи има! (Dzídot úši ima, plótot óči ima!) lit' "The-wall has ears, the-fence has eyes!"
Ѕидон уши има, плотон очи има! (Dzídon úši ima, plóton óči ima!) lit' "The-wall has ears, the-fence has eyes!"

 

[bibax]

The hearing forest and the sighted field is one of artworks by Hieronymus Bosch.
Hieronymus Bosch: The Hearing Forest and the Seeing Field

Heinrich Bebel, in 1508 quotes from the Proverbia germanica, a collection of proverbs published in Latin: 'Campus habet oculos; silva aures'

 

[djara]

but I do not have a clue as for the origin of field eyes and forest ears

I guess that fields being open (hardly any trees) we can see quite far whereas forests being thick with trees we can hardly see, but we can hear

 

[ThomasK]

Indeed, I had thought of that for a second... ;-) The mysterious wallmouse is still around. I am just wondering whether the word might refer to something other than a mouse but sounds like that due to popular etymology...

 

[ThomasK]

Mouse mystery solved! Truce tells me at the Indo-Iranian section that a mouse is some kind of informant! He adds: "When it is deserted and you feel safe and you talk in an imprudent way, it is not that safe as it seems to be. Although you see no one around but walls, there are mouse holes in the walls in which the mice hear what you say."

 

[nimak]

in Croatian also:

šuma ima uši, polje ima oči - forest has ears, field has eyes

< Campus habet oculos, silva aures.

We have this proverb in Macedonian too:

Поле окато, гора ушата. (Póle ókato, góra úšata.) = lit. "Field 'has eyes; sighted' (Adj.), forest 'has ears; hearing' (Adj.)"

поле (pole) neut. = "field"​

окато (okato) adj. neut. = something/someone that has eye(s); sighted​

око, pl. очи (oko, pl. oči) = "eye(s)"​

гора (gora) fem. = "forest"​

ушата (ušata) adj. fem. = something/someone that has ear(s); hearing​

уво, pl. уши (uvo, pl. uši) = "ear(s)"​