the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on

English

Alternative forms

• the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on

Etymology

The saying, found in many Eurasian languages, probably originated in Turkish (it ürür, kervan yürür), where it rhymes.

Proverb

the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on

1. History (or progress) moves ahead, no matter the criticism it may attract.

Translations

life goes on even if some will try to stop progress

• Albanian: qentë le të lehin, karvani ecën përpara
• Arabic: الْقَافِلَةُ تَسِيرُ وَالْكِلَابُ تَنْبَحُ‎ (al-qāfilatu tasīru wālkilābu tanbaḥu)
• Azerbaijani: it hürər, karvan keçər
• Bulgarian: ку́четата ла́ят, керва́нът си върви́ (kúčetata lájat, kervánǎt si vǎrví)
• Burmese: ^{(please verify)} ဘယ်လိုပင် ရပ်တန် ပစ်ဖို့ ကြိုးစား ပါစေ၊ ဘဝဆိုတာ သူ့ ခရိး အဆုံး အထိ ရှေ့ဆက် နေမှာပါ (bhailuipang raptan pachpui. krui:ca: pace| bha.wa.hcuita su. hka.ri: a.hcum: a.hti. hre.hcak nehmapa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 我行我素，豈管他哉／我行我素，岂管他哉 (wǒ xíng wǒ sù, qǐ guǎn tā zāi)

• Czech: psi štěkají, ale karavana jde dál, psi štěkají, ale karavana jede dál
• Finnish: koirat haukkuvat ja karavaani kulkee
• French: les chiens aboient, la caravane passe (fr)
• Georgian: ძაღლი ყეფს ქარავანი მიდის (ʒaɣli q̇eps karavani midis)
• German: die Hunde bellen, aber die Karawane zieht weiter
• Greek: τα σκυλιά αλυχτούν μα το καραβάνι προχωρά (ta skyliá alychtoún ma to karaváni prochorá)
• Hebrew: הכלבים נובחים,אבל השיירה עוברת‎ (haklavím novkhím, avál hashayará ovéret)
• Hungarian: a kutya ugat, a karaván halad (hu)
• Indonesian: anjing menggongong, kafilah berlalu
• Korean: 개가 짖어도 기차는 달린다 (gaega jijeodo gichaneun dallinda)
• Polish: psy szczekają, karawana idzie dalej (pl), psy szczekają, karawana jedzie dalej
• Portuguese: os cães ladram, mas a caravana passa
• Romanian: câinii latră, ursul merge (literally “the dogs are barking, the bear is walking”), câinii latră, carvana trece
• Russian: соба́ка ла́ет, а карава́н идёт (sobáka lájet, a karaván idjót), соба́ка ла́ет, а карава́н е́дет (sobáka lájet, a karaván jédet), соба́ка ла́ет — ве́тер но́сит, а карава́н идёт (sobáka lájet — véter nósit, a karaván idjót)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пси лају, а каравани пролазе

  Roman: psi laju, a karavani prolaze

• Slovak: psy štekajú, ale karavána ide ďalej
• Spanish: los perros ladran, pero la caravana pasa
• Turkish: it ürür, kervan yürür
• Vietnamese: chó cứ sủa còn đoàn người cứ đi

See also

• haters gonna hate
• sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me
• you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink

References

• Gregory Y. Titelman: Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings, 1996, page 57, →ISBN