We are all familiar with the basic idea of Pharoh's dreams. Pharoh dreamt of 7 thin cows devouring 7 plump cows. Joseph symbolically interpreted this to mean that 7 years of starvation would come and make people forget the 7 years of plenty which had preceded them. In the table below we provide a linear symbolic translation of Pharoh's dream and its interpretation.

Verse text	Symbolic interpretation	Source
Pharoh stood on the Nile	Pharoh reviewed the Egyptian economy	Gn41-01b
And from the river	from the economy	Gn41-01b
there arose 7 cows	there arose 7 years	Numerical symbolism
good looking and plump	good years with plenty to eat	Gn41-02a
grazing in the meadow	with brotherhood and no economic jealousy	Gn41-02b
But then 7 other cows came after them	7 other years followed them
bad looking and thin	bad years with little to eat	Analogy with Gn41-02a
and they stood by the cows on the river bank	Two sets of years affected the economy but	Gn41-04a
the bad looking cows consumed the good looking cows	the bad years made people forget the good years	Gn41-04a

Advanced Rashi: The above table uses the so called linear translation method. This method was introduced (or popularized) by Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Sharfman in his Linear Translation of the Bible and Rashi. Rabbi Sharfman's linear translation is still very popular among those who are beginners in learning Rashi. Rabbi Sharfman was in fact Rabbi of my synaggoue when I was young and I spent many enjoyable Shabbath afternoons