maður er manns gaman

Etymology
Literally “person is person’s joy”. (Antonymic is the sentiment of the 🇨🇬 expression .) Compare 🇨🇬.

The proverb is from the forty-seventh verse of the Hávamál, one of the books of the Poetic Edda.


 * Hávamál verse 47 in Old Norse
 * Ungr var ek forðum
 * fór ek einn saman
 * þá varð ek villr vega;
 * auðigr þóttumk
 * er ek annan fann
 * maðr er manns gaman.
 * English translation by Benjamin Thorpe
 * I was once young,
 * I was journeying alone,
 * and lost my way;
 * rich I thought myself,
 * when I met another.
 * Man is the joy of man.
 * English translation by Henry A. Bellows
 * Young was I once,
 * and wandered alone,
 * And nought of the road I knew;
 * Rich did I feel
 * when a comrade I found,
 * for man is man's delight.
 * English translation by Olive Bray
 * Young was I once,
 * I walked alone,
 * and bewildered seemed in the way;
 * then I found me another
 * and rich I thought me,
 * for man is the joy of man.
 * English translation by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor
 * Young and alone
 * on a long road,
 * Once I lost my way:
 * Rich I felt
 * when I found another;
 * Man rejoices in man.

Proverb

 * 1) people enjoy the company of other people
 * 2) * Icelandic Rune Poem, found in manuscript AM 461 12mo :
 * Maðr
 * er manns gaman
 * ok moldar auki
 * ok skipa skreytir.
 * homo mildingr.
 * Man
 * delight of man
 * and augmentation of the earth
 * and adorner of ships.