“During a flood, the river seems to be going to carry away everything that comes its way, but the water drains and goes away, and the stones and boulders remain.”

This proverb, of Albanian origin, serves as a powerful metaphor for resilience and permanence amid temporary upheaval. The “flood” represents overwhelming external forces — empires, states, migrations, or assimilation policies — that appear all-powerful in the moment. The “water” symbolizes transient powers, ideologies, or historical currents that eventually recede. The “stones and boulders” stand for the enduring core: the people, their identity, language, memory, or land.

In the Context of the Arnauts

This proverb fits naturally into discussions about the Arnauts/Arvanites — the Albanian-origin Orthodox communities in Greece. For centuries, they faced successive “floods”: Ottoman rule, the rise of Greek nationalism, state-sponsored Hellenization, urbanization, and language shift. To many observers, it seemed as though the Arvanite identity would be completely swept away, especially around Athens.

Yet, like the boulders in the proverb, elements have remained: Genetic and surname traces. Local historical memory in certain villages. Cultural contributions to Greek independence and society.

Interpretation

The saying carries a quiet defiance: no matter how strong the current of history appears, the solid foundations of a people are not easily erased. This is connected to Albanian endurance; a hope that core identity survives even when surface-level changes (language shift, political assimilation, or demographic pressure) seem total.

Source

Балканские владения Османской империи на рубеже XVIII-XIX вв внутреннее положение, предпосылки национально-освободительных движений By Виктор Петрович Грачев, Нина Ивановна Хитрова. 1990