از تو مَست که بَر مَست

What it means

از تو مَست که بَر مَست (az to mast ke bar mast) is a Persian proverb structured around an old form of the verb “to be” (مَست, mast, an archaic third-person construction for “is from”). The phrase translates as “it is from you that comes back upon you,” the Persian equivalent of “what goes around comes around” or “you reap what you sow.” The form most Iranians use today is the more transparent variant از ماست که بر ماست (az mâst ke bar mâst), “it is from us that comes back upon us,” which carries the same meaning.

The literal meaning

The structure is dense even for native speakers. از تو (az to) means “from you,” مَست (mast) is an archaic verbal form meaning “it is,” که (ke) is “that which,” بَر (bar) means “upon, onto,” and مَست closes with the same verb again. Word by word: “from you it is, that which upon you it is.” The shorter variant از ماست که بر ماست reads, again word by word, “from us it is that upon us it is.” The grammar collapses cause and consequence into a single line. Whatever lands on you came out of you in the first place.

The figurative meaning

Whatever happens to you, the seed of it was something you yourself put out into the world. Bad treatment from others tracks back to your own past actions. Good fortune arrived because you set the conditions for it. The proverb names personal responsibility without preaching it. Iranians use it when someone complains about an outcome they helped create: a fight with a friend, a rejection at work, a falling-out with family. It has the same flavor as the English “you brought this on yourself,” softer in tone, sharper in implication.

The proverb also has a national-political reading. After major collective failures, Iranians sometimes say از ماست که بر ماست to mean: the country’s situation is not just inflicted by outsiders, it is also produced by us, by what we tolerate, by what we do not do. The line shows up in opinion essays, in conversations among activists, in songs. It shifts blame inward without becoming self-pity.

How to use it

• از ماست که بر ماست (az mâst ke bar mâst) “It is from us that comes back upon us”
• هر چی هست از خودته (har chi hast az khodete) “Whatever is happening, it comes from you”
• این رو خودش درست کرده، از ماست که بر ماست (in ro khodesh dorost karde, az mâst ke bar mâst) “He brought this on himself, what we sow we reap”
• دیگه گله نکن، از ماست که بر ماست (dige gele nakon, az mâst ke bar mâst) “Stop complaining, this is on us”

Related expressions

هر چه بکاری همان درو می‌کنی (har che bekâri hamân dero mikoni, “whatever you sow, that you reap”) is the same idea in plainer language. خود کرده را تدبیر نیست (khod-karde râ tadbir nist, “there is no remedy for what you have done to yourself”) sharpens the same point. کرم درخت از خود درخت است (kerm-e derakht az khod-e derakht ast, “the worm of the tree comes from the tree itself”) is another image for the same logic. The Sa’di and Hafez canons return to this theme repeatedly, often more elegantly.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab