Proverbs - small wisdoms of everyday life and reading for minutes. Misfortunes rarely come alone. This is seen in Germany just as it is in Italy, and here as there, the mice dance as soon as the cat is out of the house. But there are also differences, for while no crow here scratches another's eye out, a wolf does not eat another wolf beyond the Alps. Some proverbs can be translated literally, some convey the same message through different imagery, while for others, no equivalents can be found at all. For translation, this means a balancing act: Where should the wording be preserved, and where does the German version seem to demand itself? Here, everyone may decide differently; the present collection tends toward a faithful German version and thus offers ample space to find the German counterpart to the Italian original.