"A mother owl and her fairy child..."

There is a Vietnamese proverb that says, "A mother with an owl, a child with a fairy" (a variant is "A mother with an owl, a child with a fairy, a kind mother, a child with a mischievous spirit").

The book Dictionary of Vietnamese Proverbs (Nguyen Duc Duong - Ho Chi Minh City General Publishing House, 2010) collects the phrase "Owl mother, fairy child; kind mother, noisy child [?]" but does not explain it, classifying it as "Unclear meaning".

In fact, "A mother who is an owl, a child who is a fairy; a kind mother, a child who is mischievous" is a variant synonymous with the phrase "Owl parents give birth to a fairy child," which Nguyen Duc Duong himself collected and explained as "The parents are both owls (ugly), but their children are born as beautiful as fairies. It is often used to indicate the superiority of children over their parents thanks to the blessings of their ancestors."

It is generally believed that parents with handsome, beautiful appearances and gentle personalities will give birth to intelligent and beautiful children (as the saying goes, "A dragon's egg hatches into a dragon, a tiger father begets a tiger son"). However, there are cases of "a mother with an ugly face and a child with a beautiful face" or "ugly parents giving birth to a child with a beautiful face." Due to the combination of good genes from both parents, there are cases where parents who were originally ugly and inferior give birth to intelligent and bright children. Therefore, a Tay proverb also reflects this: "A mother as ugly as a toad, but her child is as beautiful as a fairy." The author Nguyen Duc Duong's explanation that this is due to "the blessings of ancestors" is both superfluous and lacks scientific basis.

Regarding the line "A mother owl, a fairy child; a kind mother, a mischievous child," perhaps due to not understanding what "mischievous" means, the author Nguyen Duc Duong put a question mark (?) after this word and categorized it as "unclear meaning."

Actually, the correct spelling is "sục sạch," not "xục xạc." In the Thanh Hoa dialect, "sục sạch" means a troublemaker or someone rude (for example: "Naughty like a troublemaker!"). The Vietnamese dictionary (by Lê Văn Đức) defines "sục sạch" as "rude, impolite: A troublemaker."

In contrast to the phenomenon of "ugly parents giving birth to beautiful children," there is the phenomenon of "kind parents giving birth to mischievous, unruly children." This is a genetic "mutation," where children do not inherit the dominant genes of their parents, nor do they inherit the good qualities of their ancestors. Therefore, there is a Chinese proverb that says, "A dragon gives birth to nine sons, but not all nine become dragons" (龍生有九子,九子不成龍), meaning "A dragon gives birth to nine offspring, each different" (一龍生九種, 種種各別) – meaning "One dragon gives birth to nine offspring, each different" (similar to "Parents give birth to children, but heaven gives them their personalities").

Therefore, the saying "A mother with a crow's head and a fairy child, a kind mother and a mischievous child" is not so difficult to understand that it should be classified as "unclear meaning," and it is a phenomenon explained by genetics, not related to "ancestral blessings."

Man Nong (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/me-cu-con-tien-270888.htm