Life is a stream of ever-elusive opportunities. Therefore, it is so important to comprehend the essence of the saying (its meaning) "strike iron while it is hot", because it will help to understand what life is, but first we’ll look at history.
Origin
The adage was born among blacksmiths. We do not know how it is now, but before the artisans worked only with water and fire. The product was obtained due to the temperature difference. Iron could be given any shape when it is hot. The problem is that the iron quickly solidified, so it was necessary to work deftly. Knowing the history of occurrence, it is not difficult to understand the word and its meaning (“strike the iron while it is hot” means): a person should not hesitate, doubt when he sees that the situation is developing in the most favorable way for him. In modern language, you need to seize the moment until the red-hot steel of life has become a dull daily routine.
As always, the semantic content of proverbs and sayings is best learned on specific examples. We pass to them.
Boy and girl
Let's say there’s a good guy Vanya who likes Katya’s girlfriend. He's too shy to talk to her. And she is too beautiful to wait until he decides. And here is a great opportunity for the boy to overcome his fear - an evening of dancing. Imagine also that Katya likes the slightly boring and smart guy Vanya, so at the dance evening she props up the wall and waits for the young man to invite her. The further development of events depends only on Vanya. Life gives him a great opportunity to get the most wonderful girl in the world, the main thing is not to hesitate, not to doubt. If the hero knew the sayings meaning “strike the iron while it is hot”, then he would help him decide. True, if only he came to the evening of dancing, Vanya could memorize, read and forget, not assuming that his fate was happening very close, and it would be nice for the young man to take a direct part in this. We don’t worry about Katya, she will be happy anyway. And fate does not favor boring “wise men”.
"Diamond Hand" and the Soviet modification of the saying
The film, beloved by more than one generation of viewers, offers us our version of the proverb. It is noteworthy that its authors are bandits whose life does not imply relaxation even for a moment. It may seem to someone that such a life is too tiring, nervous, but here it all depends on temperament. Okay, enough preface. The modification is the following: “strike the iron, without departing from the cash register”. By the way, the popularity of the film led people astray: some people think that this is the original form of the saying. Although we know not only the true form, but also the meaning of the saying “strike the iron while it’s hot”.
When Semyon Semenovich Gorbunkov escapes from the bandits, he meets the driver in Muscovite, he stops, asks what happened the hero of Yuri Nikulin reports: “It’s a matter of national importance, possibly a chase!” The owner of the Muscovite says that he will take it, Gorbunkov asks to hurry up, screaming desperately: “Well, what time is it!”, And the unexpected savior answers him with a ready-made aphorism: “Time is money, as they say, when you see money, do not waste time. Forge the iron, without departing from the cash register. " Witty filmmakers merged the proverb and the Soviet phrase that adorned all the country's retail outlets: “Count money without leaving the cash register” or “Count change without losing the cash register”. At one time, the same wording adorned the Russian markets and sales centers for products and things, but when the popularity of plastic cards began to grow, everyone forgot about it. When a person pays not in cash, for him is not an urgent problem of change, the latter simply does not. Everything is taken off for calculation.
I must say that the saying and its original meaning (“strike the iron while it's hot” we are still considering) were not affected. In the Soviet humorous interpretation, it means the same thing: do not miss the opportunity, especially when it comes to money. There is a saying that they’re not joking with money.
The proverb is useful not only to blacksmiths and bandits
The reader thinks: “Well, this does not concern me. There is nothing interesting in my life. Work-home, sea vacations in the summer, that's all. That’s the game plan for the next thirty years. ” As Arnold Schwarzenegger said in one of his films: “Thinking like that is a big mistake!”
In fact, the cozy everyday life that a man painstakingly builds is rooted in a hectic life, and it only seems to him that nothing is changing, but it also takes a lot of effort to maintain stability. People follow the semantic content of the proverb hourly. The proverb “strike iron while it’s hot” can be successfully used for the motto of our life. Man today is inclined to constantly seek new opportunities. And not because he wants to do it, but because if you don’t do this, you will lose what you have, just like in Alice in Wonderland: “You have to run very fast to stay in place all the time.” Who would have thought that the book would become not only a cult, but also a prophetic one.
If it’s permissible to say so, the phrase “strike the iron while it’s hot” (the meaning of the proverb we examined above) is a hero of our time, and you need to know the heroes by sight.
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