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  What it means

  Literally “Even the hem of the skirt bothers a bad ballerina,” this proverb-like idiom means that a person without skill will always find something outside themselves to blame for failure. An incompetent dancer would complain even about the tiny hem of her tutu instead of admitting her own limits. Poles use it to call out blame-shifting, when someone blames poor results on small obstacles instead of their own lack of skill. It is the Polish equivalent of “a bad workman blames his tools.”

  Vocabulary

  • złej — bad, poor (genitive singular feminine of zły)
  • baletnicy — ballerina (genitive singular of baletnica)
  • przeszkadza — bothers, gets in the way (3rd person singular of przeszkadzać)
  • nawet — even
  • rąbek — hem, small edge (diminutive of rąb)
  • spódnicy — skirt (genitive singular of spódnica)

  Grammar note

  The phrase złej baletnicy is a genitive construction — 'of the bad ballerina' — used here as the dative of the person bothered: przeszkadzać komuś (to bother someone) governs the dative, and genitive here carries that function in the fixed proverb form. Rąbek u spódnicy uses the preposition u + genitive to mean 'at/on the skirt.' The whole sentence is a proverb in the present tense, expressing a timeless truth.

  Cultural context

  This slightly formal but widely known expression is often quoted with mild irony or humour when someone makes excuses. The English 'a bad workman blames his tools' is a close equivalent. The ballet setting makes the complaint seem even more absurd: if you cannot dance well at all, the hem is the least of your real problems in dancing.

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