Literal translation
it is not the hen that cackles the loudest that lays the finest eggs
Meaning
it's not the loudest hen that lays the finest eggs
Explanation
The proverb compares two farmyard behaviors, loud cackling and silent laying, to state that they bear no necessary connection: the most talkative hen is not necessarily the most productive, nor is the quietest one the least useful. Applied to human relations, the saying warns against judging by appearances or by how much noise someone makes about their own work, recalling that a person's or a work's real value is not measured by the publicity given to it. It joins the popular wisdom that prefers deeds to words, expressed here in a concrete, rural form typical of Provençal farmyard proverbs. The verb canta refers to the rooster's crow or the hen's cackle, and iòu (the egg) closes the saying on the image of a concrete, measurable result, set against the noise that is only its outward appearance. The proverb is quoted to defend a discreet but effective person against a louder but less productive one.