«تُؤْثِرُ فِلْسًا تُوعِيهِ عَلَى ذِكْرٍ تَعِيهِ»
You prefer hoarding a small coin to retaining wise counsel.
The related forms tūʿīhi and taʿīhi share a sound pattern but shift between storing an object and assimilating a lesson. Rendering both simply as “keep” erases the art; rendering both as “understand” erases the coin. Different English verbs can preserve the semantic contrast even if they cannot fully reproduce the sound.
The structure tuʾthiru ... ʿalā makes one choice outweigh another. “Prefer X to Y” conveys that hierarchy clearly. The passage critiques a distorted priority, not the mere possession of money.
Translation exercise
Compare “store/retain” with “keep/keep”; which better preserves the semantic distinction?