No hay mal que por bien no venga

[Marsopa]

And I ran across "No hay mal que por bien no venga." I do understand that this idiom means something like good things can come from bad, or every cloud has a silver lining, but it has always seemed like it should be "No hay bien que por mal no venga...:"

Can anyone straighten me out???

thanks,

Marospa

[poli]

You definitely answered your own question, and it's often true too.

[Rusty]

I don't understand why you would want to say the opposite. Some good usually comes from a setback. In retrospect, we see that even our worst trials have helped us in some way. Read a little more about the saying here.

[Tomisimo]

Changed the thread's title.

I hear what you're saying Marsopa, I actually used to think the same thing back in the day. Let's walk through the meaning.

No hay mal que por bien no venga.
Grammatically, we can change this to:

No hay mal que no venga por bien.
Now let's make it a bit more explicit:

No hay cosa mala que no venga sino por tu bien.
Now, if we try to translate that literally into English, it'll look kinda funny since we wouldn't normally use double negatives like that:

There is no bad thing that comes(that happens to you), that didn't come (or happen to you) for your benefit
We might normally turn that around and make it an affirmative sentence:

All bad things come/happen to your for your benefit/for a reason
Hope this explanation somehow helps you a bit

[breadb]

I think I remember this phrase from a song.

[Rusty]

Gloria Estefan sings a song with that title in her Mi Tierra album (track 6). The whole album is great.

[sosia]

No hay mal que por bien no venga-->
No hay mal (que recibas) que por bien no (te) venga (después)
The bad thing you receive can be good for you, you must learn/take something good from a bad thing --> your "good things can come from bad"

If you say "No hay bien que por mal no venga...:" you're saying "all the good things comes from bad things", and that's not the same. Good thing can come alone (like lottery "
saludos

[CrOtALiTo]

Yes, Sosia, you are right, if you get good things of things bad, well, that said is very used on my country, my grandfather always said that (Dicho), I believe that the said are not whole in the this post, because when my grandfather told me the said that was longer, but I don't remind the whole said.

[Elaina]

Something bad happens but because of that "bad" thing that happens, something else, but good, happens.

So the good thing that happens is a side-effect of the bad thing that happened.

For example, you are married and because of whatever you end up getting divorced and you are devastated.......you think it is the end of the world, but then through time, you meet the most perfect "person" that you get along well with, you agree on everything, you love each other very much and you live happily ever-after.

Ergo.......no hay mal que por bien no venga.



my

[Marsopa]

Thank you, David,

That was a great explanation. When you added the "tu" in there, I could see it.

Funny, that we had the same misunderstanding. Now I don't feel so dumb!

[Tomisimo]

Originally Posted by Marsopa

Thank you, David,

That was a great explanation. When you added the "tu" in there, I could see it.

Funny, that we had the same misunderstanding. Now I don't feel so dumb!

I'm glad it helped you. When I first learned this saying, it felt "backwards" to me, so I just decided to memorize it and not worry about why. Later, when my Spanish was a bit better I was able to analyze it and see that it really does make sense the way it is.

[QuirlosCanto]

Originally Posted by Marsopa

And I ran across "No hay mal que por bien no venga." I do understand that this idiom means something like good things can come from bad, or every cloud has a silver lining, but it has always seemed like it should be "No hay bien que por mal no venga...:"

Can anyone straighten me out???

My answer to "No hay mal que por bien no venga." does indeed translate in non literal fashion, as you have deduced!
However, if as you have suggested it should be written ("No hay bien que por mal no venga." It would then mean in the literal : No good ever comes from that which is bad. The original idiom literally would translate to "there exists nothing bad via which from good, it is ushered. This convoluted logic is more than idiomatic, and what is truly meant is numerous #1-spiritual (all good co-exists with that which is not good, necessarily the bad), #2-Philosophical (even the existentially aware is not cognizant of what is good or bad according to when, where, why, what, etc., and so on and so forth.) #3-Morality (What is good for the goose is good(not), but really so for the gander). Just three disciplines for which its usage can apply.

Finally, and as I understand the culture in which it supports [meaning is: all perceived bad is not so, that through it came the good.] All is not truly apparent unless it is examined without biased senses supported by a false belief system. It is part and parcel of the mysterious ways of our creator. Keep in mind that even though all societies have some form of religion of which all of them hold this to be so, however in all Spanish speaking countries, and others (romance languages) e.g.-Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian, a more homogenous and highest in percentages practice of Catholicism, and varied are the reasons why, for this tenet of the mysterious nature of God been ingrained by a church that in its infancy had always its "roots" cross planted with those of the state. The wrath of the autocrats, the monarchy, and of the church had shared interest which by themselves would not be allowed to stand. Let not the commoner declare of which he feared the most, lest he be executed for "treason" or be made to sit on a Roman chair for "heresy".

That, mon amie, is my long winded and parenthetically digressed explanation to a rather simple question. By and large, we are not empirical beings, but as Oscar Wilde was fond of stating........you fill in the rest.