Árinni kennir illur ræðari

"Árinni kennir illur ræðari" in Icelandic translates most naturally to "bad workers blame their tools" but let's look at the literal translation:

• árinni = "to the oar"
• kennir = "blames"
• illur = "[a] bad""
• ræðari = "rower"

So, it actually translates to something like "a bad rower blames the oar". This neatly alludes to the seafaring culture of the Icelanders. In the Icelandic translation, we see the idea of people blaming their inabilities in its own cultural context!

A neat activity would study the equivalent phrases of this in other languages!