PROVERBS WITH LITERARY MEANINGS IN ENGLISH -- 201-400
 

201. The death that kills the chicken is the result of his greed.

202. If it is the rat that ate the fufu, who is it that ate the soup?

203. The poor person's soup is very small.

204. The child's chicken is his cow.

205. This portion of salad has insufficient oil, yet people say to cut up some more.

206. If you put food in your mouth and also put it in the pot, you will not be able to have a full stomach.

207. Going  into the valley to fight is easy for me, but it is how I am going to return that is a problem to me.

208. Slang came later (than proper language).

209. The cry of the inlaw did not reach the sky.  [Refers to unheeded cry.]

210. The ears are not satisfied with hearing things.  [They are always ready to hear more.]

211. One to whom a thing is extremely important inquires about it too much.

212. Chase the lizard, chase the lizard--the lizard does not have a friend in the world.

213. The dry season provides protection for a bad person.

214. One does not squeeze up one's eyes when it is dark.  [Refers to gesture involving eye-closing, similar to winking.]

215. The night does not know a light-complexioned person.

216. If a [thorny  animal, like porcupine] jumps into the trap, one takes a stick and beats it to death.

217. A pregnant stomach cannot be covered with the hand.

218. One who buys a slave and names him "Let my belongings not be lost," whose belongings then is he saying should be lost?  [Interested only in his own property.]

219. It requires special strength for a pit-trap to kill a snake.

220. If someone chases a chicken empty-handed, it jumps into the bush.

221. When the antelope roars, something has happened to its child.

222. If life were a chicken's egg [fragile], an enemy would break it open.

223. A good thing does not touch the ground.  [It takes off too quickly.]

224. The snail travels over the thorn carefully [with a good tongue].

225. When a fight is prevented, the coward starts to boast.

226. The strong arrow kills the eagle.

227. It is being idle in the afternoon that causes one to look for fleas on the dog.

228. The same night that breaks on Afo day also breaks on Nkwo day.

229. If one underestimates the small pot, the pot will boil over [fire will go out].

230. When a crunching sound [noise of chewing] is heard, the child's eyes go to the øosükwü  [type of palm nut easily broken].

231. The chicken with a broken leg pecks for food early.

232. Where the runner reaches, the walker will reach as well.

233. If the snake falls kparakata [onomatopoeic word for falling sound] he will be killed kparakata.  [The way a thing happens is the way it is treated.]

234. If you can't find what you want to do, do what you see available.

235. When fire burns a child for the first time, he learns wisdom.

236. The chicken said that it is by pecking here and there that its stomach is filled.

237. The woman who cooks ogiri knows the blind fly.

238.The stream that  was too much for the elephant the tortoise wades through easily.

239. It does not follow that because I am too fat I will eat a pile of feces.  [Weight does not mean you can conquer all.]

240. When the chicken pecks too much from the basket will enclose it.  [The basket of food falls over the chicken and entraps it.]

241. When one keeps eating because the food tastes good, his stomach is upset.

242. One who climbs to the top of the kolanut tree should fetch firewood [from the tree] for himself and bring water for himself, because he will not climb it a second time. [The branches break easily so take all you want the first time.]

243. One who looks a corpse in the face will cry himself to death.

244. The stick that is used to describe a snake, it and the snake are not equal in size.

245. If one is going to eat a toad, let him eat a fat one.

246. It is not good for a man to eat a lizard and also eat its eggs.

247. The eyes are used to warn an old man, but the mouth is used to warn a child.

248. The small bird is king in its nest.

249. Greeting does not know the angry person.  [One greets everyone, regardless of who in the group may be feeling angry.]

250. One whom I love should not hate me.

251. One should not put his hand in the dog's mouth whether it is alive or dead.  [It may not be quite dead--don't take the risk.]

252. Because of curiosity [wanting to see everything]  the monkeyis shot in the eye with a bullet.

253. One who carries oil should not stir up trouble in the market.

254. The leaves of the ugere [tree with large leaves] fall at the base of the ugere.

255. The town recognizes an important [rich, popular] person.

256. In union there is strength.

257. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

258. The (same) mouth that spoke bad things will (later) speak good things.

259. One who does not recognize the one who is his better [in age, accomplishment, etc.] is still immature.  (He who does not know his senior has not grown.)

260. A good woman is her husband's crown.  (A good wife is a crown of honor to her husband.)

261. The bone that is too much for the dog, the chicken says that it will chew it.  (A strong bone which a dog could not bite a chicken says it can bite.)

262. The wealth of a child causes him to become a respected person.  (A youth's wealth makes him a chief.)

263. The bird, while eating the oil palm nut, opens its teeth.

264. If a woman has no wealth, she should have good manners [voice].

265. You have not even seen a hawk, yet you say that women do not eat hawk meat.  (You never see a hawk you say a woman does not eat hawk.)

266. A woman who talks too much is a devil.  (A woman flippant is a devil.)

267. There is no salt, there is no pepper, is not what you are going to say to a guest.  (No salt no pepper is not what you are going to say to your guest.)  [You are suppposed to be prepared for guests.]

268. A handsome (fine) young man does not grow (do well, flourish) in a wicked land (land of witchcraft).  [They  might kill him out of jealousy.] (A handsome man does not grow in a wicked land.)

269. A bad person does not change his character.  (A bad person does not stop his evils.)

270.  One who uses a knife will die by the knife.  (What a person does will kill him.)

271. When one who has been bitten by a snake sees the head of a lizard, he bursts out running.  (When a snake bites you when you see the head of a lizard you will run.)

272. Always doing something does not allow a woman to grow a beard.  (Do this do that does not allow a woman to grow beard.)

273. One whose eyes have been blinded is an old person in the land of the spirits.  (A blind person is an old person in the land of the dead.) [His eyes have been long closed--he is accustomed to being like a dead person in the land of the spirits.]

274. An empty tin makes a big noise.  (Empty vessels make most sound.)

275. A king's wealth does not prevent his death.  (A king's wealth shall never stop his death.)

276. The snake's feet are in its stomach.

277. The killing of a friend does not show strength.
 
278. The eyes that see a spirit will die.

279. The leopard is beautiful but has a bad heart.

280. The rat is a chief when it enters its own home.

281. There are no small snakes.

282. A poor person  has no friends.

283. The old person who is suffering hardships knows what (bad things) she did, in saying that she will not last the year out.  (An old woman
knows what she did before saying that she will not last for the year.)

284. A person with two minds does not kill a lion.  (A person with double mind cannot kill a lion.)

285. If one owes a debt and fights over it, he still must repay the debt he owes.  [Debts must be repaid, no matter what.]

286. One who learns the snake's journey will also learn his roundabout ways.

287. The arrow that is shot upwards does not sleep up there.

288. One does not swallow smoke knowingly [with good eyes].

289. One does not stay in front of a person and refuse meat.

290. One does not hide a corpse from the land.  [Eventually corpes must go to the ground.]

291. One does not bury smoke in the ground.

292. The young woman does not praise the beauty of her companion.

293. The young woman does not know that things are difficult in the world.

294. The hand does not excel [over other methods] in carrying a load.

295.  The years continue to be bad, but one who is destined to live long will still live long.

296. One does not herd cows empty-handed.

297. The cow does not know that its tail is wealth.

298. The rabbit says that always running around is not equal [in undesirability] to eight days of being hung over the fire on a skewer [to dry].

299. The small monkey completely shaves its head and breaks the razor; it thinks that its hair will not grow out again.

300. The thing that the hawk ate  returns to the vulture's stomach.

301. Rather than goat meat cause quarrels, let the corpse go empty-handed [buried without ceremony].  [Refers to old custom of the ümüada
raiding houses during funeral times, stealing goats, etc.]

302. If the hand does not touch the pot a little, the pot does not rattle.

303. If the lizard is too weak to bear a child, it says that its patience held it back.

304. If the child is not strong enough to shoot the deer properly, it and the deer both fall.

305. If a parcel is not [yet] unwrapped, one does not press it with the fingernails.

306. A woman who has given birth twice is not afraid of pregnancy.

307. For the oil palm to bear fruit and ripen on the same day is not a good thing.

308. One who does not know a person well calls him "my friend".

309. The way a dance is demonstrated is the way it is danced.

310. The way you carry the knife is not the way you cut with it.

311. A male animal of another type does not give birth to the long-snouted muskrat.

312. A member of a person's household is his enemy. [He knows you intimately.]

313. One person does not chase a chicken in a bachelor's house.  [Implies lots of room for the chicken to escape in.]

314.  Money makes good soup .  [Okpogho is Abîrîba dialect word.]

315. The chicken that pecks at soldier ants must run.

316. Constantly saying "my inlaw, my inlaw" is not the same as being officially married.

317. It is not taking a gun and killing a fly that is hard, but rather it is [hard for] the one who gathers it up.

318. It is not the quantity of feces that heals sickness.
319. A good road does not hurt the legs.

320. Use old [wise, mature] eyes and look into an old bag for me.

321. Take the monkey's [cooked] hand out of the soup so that it will not appear to be a human hand.  [misinterpretation]

322. When the dog carries a meat bone [in its mouth]  it [the bone] goes its bad paws.

323. The goat that has trimmed ears should not deny bad behavior.  [People sometimes marked recalcitrant goats by making cuts in the ears.]

324. The bachelor who wrestled with the agba dance twice, if he wrestles a third time he wrestles his intestines.  [He battles hunger.]

325. The day that will break, there  must be morning in it.

326. Where there is slinking around, something must be going on.

327. After the child has eaten his fill he remembers that the soup is bad.

328. The child who laughs at his father's rotting yams is laughing at his own stomach.

329. The two hands that are used to carry a small pot are like two legs tied to it.

330. One tells a person's creditor that the debt will not be repaid and he says that if he is given a black goat he will not take it.  [Already being choosy without knowing whether he will get anything at all.]

331. If you look at an old person's mouth, it seems as though he never used it to nurse at the breast.

332. The bachelor says that  the market is not full:  how many people are there is his household?  [He should not complaint--he has made no contribution to the population.]

333. When they say not to cut a person, are they saying not to make a small cut to let the blood out?.

334. If our father is told that something is in nature, he takes his wine-tapping tool and goes to the place on the tree where he taps wine.  [Play on misunderstanding of the word "chi".]

335. If the child  quotes the proverbs that his father quoted, he should also pay the debts that his father owes.

336. While the calf was used as an example, was one asked to kill its mother? [Going too far.]

337. When the snake entered and confronted the woman in her house, she called the name of her husband.

338. When the largest part of the yam is dug up, a large hole is opened up.

339. When husband and wife discuss something together, many solutions come out [plenty of yam is brought out and put on the fire].

340. The cow dung does not know when the beetle enters it.  [Being taken unawares.]

341. When a sick person cries about his condition, his neighbor says that he is "crying his [the neighbor's] ears off" [crying to the point that it closes his ears].

342. It is not where the corpse has died that the ---- happens.

343. Getting the cup back from the monkey is more difficult than giving him water.

344. Marrying a beautiful woman is like the type of palm fruit that people outside like.  [Something desirable.]

345. When a fool learns a story, it makes him sleepless.  [He is so excited about it.]

346. If a strong man is killed in a market fracas,  when it comes to a fight with a leopard he will be remembered.

347. One does not carry hydrocele and give name to the body.

348. A goat does not run in the afternoon for nothing.

349. When a stubborn person drinks water, it sticks to his teeth.

350. When the dog is accustomed to eating meat, if he sees someone with a hydrocele he runs after him.

351. The hatred a husband has for a wife does not end in a particular thing.  [It is pervasive.]

352. When a foolish person learns slang, it is not becoming to him [he overdoes it].

353. If a strong man continues to be labeled as "do we go emptyhanded from a fight?,"[always winning praise as a hero] one day he will be carried on a ragged stretcher .

354. He bought a new gun to save  a person with a swollen stomach.
 
355. The fire that burns the tortoise burns its shell [all in one place], but the fire that burns the chicken burns a spread-out leg [referring to its spread-toed feet].

356. The chicken that gathers its children together gathers a lot of clucking.

357. One who talks about the things that the famine took--is it the famine that is going to pay the debt?  [Telling stories.]

358. There is no use searching the entire farm since the antelope [eats farm food] can escape from any small place.  [awom=farmland which unused for a year after harvesting.]

359. One is crying that sickness is not good, and yet he tells the person with hydrocele to have his stomach swollen.

360. Dog says the person he gave money to to buy him a chair should return the money to him because he is accustomed to squatting.

361. One who wears a ragged garment is not respected [wears ragged words].

362. If a proud person covers himself with a mat, hunger uncovers him.

363. One cannot use the nodding of the lizard's head to tell which one was sent on an errand.

364. When a small [in height] dog wears a tag around its neck, the tag rubs into feces.  [Some local dogs eat feces.]

365. The tree that is by the side of the road always has a knife cut.

366.  A child avoids the place where his father owes a debt.

367.  The child who is sent by his father to steal breaks down the door.  [He is bold because he has backing.]

368.  The woman who has become pregnant and rejoices--has she already given birth and holds [the child] in her hand?  [Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.]

369. But one does not use a stone to play with the head.  [Don't play with dangerous things.]

370.  When the cock crows, the debtor begins to worry.  [It means day is dawning, when his creditors will worry him.]

371.  When the co-wife has watched the other wife's pot, her neck is strained.

372. If a person  has no one to advise him, he should take a tail [play on words] and hang it around his neck.  [Advise himself.]

373.  When the chicken pulls out something it has been looking for in  a scrap pile,  it is blinded to all else.

374.  If the pepper goes too much to the fire, the fire is beaten out.  [Pepper makes noxious fumes.]

375.  The elderly person does not dance to the beat of the mortar.  [Too old to behave foolishly.]

376.  One does not spit [in disgust] on the feces that are in the stomach.

377.  It is the one who has a thorn stuck in him who says that it should be pulled out.

378.  The tortoise says that the time that he knew that his mother was going to die was when he called the dog and it answered.

379.  The tortoise went on a three-year journey, then appeared on the path to his father's house and started to move fast.

380.  One who eats a chicken's egg does not know whether he is eating a male or a female.

381.  The thing that the young goat likes kills him.

382.  The thing that the chicken sees and quarrels about noisily, the goat sees and stares it to death.

383.  In a land where there are no cows, sheep can clop on the road.

384.  Anything a man will struggle for until his testicles fall off should be left for him.

385.  One who calls should not call his mother in the market.  [Certain things should not be done in all places.]

386.  The young girl who scratches wherever she wants starts to smile [sheepishly].

387.  If she is pregnant, she gives birth to a stone--madame, why do you continue to get pregnant?

388.  Mothers are mothers, but one does not serve biscuit for breakfast.

389.  One can not get breadfruit from the oil-bean tree.

390.  There is no town where there is nothing that chews palm nuts.  [All lands have good and bad qualities.]

391.  The thing that one gives a prohibitive order about is what the  rat eats.

392.  A human being is guilty of not marrying, and a spirit is guilty of not giving birth to a child.

393.  You can tell a woman who cooks bad food by the way she picks the breadfruit.

394.  One who does not know the kind of dwelling the squirrel has goes and looks at his bed.

395.  When a small [in height] dog wears a tag around its neck, the tag rubs into feces.  [Some local dogs eat feces.]

396.  A very tall palm tree does not fall across the border of another village.

397.  When a person is embracing someone he should not go below the stomach [exceed the bounds of propriety].

398.  Hunger tells the vulture when you are traveling you should always return because things to eat appear suddenly.

399.  If you want to make the dog smile, give it hot roasted yam.

400.  Water sticks on the teeth of someone who has bad luck.
 


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