Literal translation
he is looking for his donkey and he is on top of it
Meaning
he's looking for what's right under his nose
Explanation
The expression mocks the scatterbrained person who looks for something they already have close at hand, without noticing it right before their eyes or, here, literally underneath them. Cerco soun ai e l'es dessus reads he's looking for his donkey and he's on top of it: the word ai names the donkey, the humble mount and indispensable working companion of Provençal country life, and the image shows him perched on his beast while searching for it everywhere else, the height of absentmindedness. The comedy lies in the contrast between the sought object and its immediate, literally supporting presence. The register is familiar, used to gently tease someone scatterbrained who misses the obvious, or to point out that a solution was under their nose all along. The image joins a family of universal proverbs about blindness, willing or not, to what is closest to oneself.