make hay while the sun shines

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  Play

Hay harvest can be spoiled by wet weather. It is important that farmers seize the opportunity of dry weather for haymaking tasks (cutting, drying, gathering), more so in medieval times, when forecasting the weather was more difficult. Attested since 1546, originally a Tudor expression, and used figuratively since 1673.

21 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Breton: pa'z eus avel eo gwentañ a zo d'ober — act while an opportunity exists
• Chinese Mandarin: 趁熱打鐵 /趁热打铁 (chènrèdǎtiě) — act while an opportunity exists
• Czech: kuj železo, dokud je žhavé — act while an opportunity exists
• Dutch: het ijzer smeden als het heet is — act while an opportunity exists
• Finnish: tao kun rauta on kuumaa — act while an opportunity exists
• French: battre le fer tant qu’il est chaud — act while an opportunity exists
• German: das Eisen schmieden, so lange es heißt ist — act while an opportunity exists
• Greek: στη βράση κολλάει το σίδερο (sti vrási kolláei to sídero) — act while an opportunity exists
• Hindi: बहती गंगा में हाथ धोना (bahtī gaṅgā mẽ hāth dhonā) — act while an opportunity exists
• Hungarian: addig üsd a vasat, amíg meleg — act while an opportunity exists
• Italian: battere il ferro finché è caldo — act while an opportunity exists
• Japanese: 善は急げ (zen wa isoge) — act while an opportunity exists
• Lao: ນ້ໍາຂຶ້ນໃຫ້ຮິບຕັກ (nam khưn hai hip tak) — act while an opportunity exists
• Macedonian: железото се кове додека е жешко (železoto se kove dodeka e žeško) — act while an opportunity exists
• Malay: sediakan payung sebelum hujan — act while an opportunity exists
• Polish: kuć żelazo, póki gorące — act while an opportunity exists
• Portuguese: aproveite a maré — act while an opportunity exists
• Russian: куй желе́зо, пока́ горячо́ (kuj želézo, poká gorjačó) — act while an opportunity exists
• Scottish Gaelic: buain am maorach nuair a tha an tràigh ann — act while an opportunity exists
• Spanish: ahora que hay modo — act while an opportunity exists
• Spanish: la ocasión, la pintan calva — act while an opportunity exists