“She prepares her food in summer”: “She” is the singular ant. You may need to say something equivalent to “Ants prepare. . .” or “They prepare. . ..” “Prepare” is to be taken in the sense of storing up or gathering and storing. In some societies this must be expressed as “put away for the time when food is short” or “. . . for hard times.” “Food” is literally “bread,” but the sense is general and refers to food that ants gather and store. We may say, for example, “In the summer they carry their food into their nests.” In place of “summer” it may be necessary to say “during the harvest season” or “the time when people harvest their crops.” Some languages speak of “summer” as the dry season or the rainy season. Translators should be careful to use a time expression here that is appropriate to the activity of ants in their own area.

“And gathers her sustenance in harvest”: The parallel terms “gathers” and “prepares” should be appropriate for the activities of ants. “Sustenance” is parallel to “food” in the first line and has the same meaning. “Harvest” refers to the gathering of crops from the fields or gardens. In some languages this is expressed, for example, “when it is time for people to bring in crops from their gardens.” In cultures where some food is grown and harvested throughout the year, this can be rendered, for example, “when there is plenty of food” or “in good times.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .