Amharic proverbs and what they mean

Literally: A finger is not cut off and thrown away because it smells.

Meaning: You do not cast off a relative because of their faults; family stays family.

Literally: A quarrel among relatives is a worm in the flesh.

Meaning: Feuds within a family hurt more and last longer than quarrels with strangers.

Literally: When donkeys kick each other, no teeth get broken.

Meaning: Quarrels between equals or kin rarely do lasting damage.

Literally: When a friendship grows old, the friend leaves by the back door.

Meaning: Friends can drift away quietly when your fortunes change.

Literally: When spider webs join together, they can tie up a lion.

Meaning: Unity is strength: many small forces together can overcome a great one.

Literally: Two are the cure for one strong man.

Meaning: Two heads, or two pairs of hands, are better than one.

Literally: A person is medicine to a person.

Meaning: People need one another.

Literally: One hand does not clap.

Meaning: Nothing gets done without working together.

Literally: Work for the worker, thorns for the one who clears them.

Meaning: Leave each task to the person who knows how to do it.

Literally: The house of the hurry-hurry people has walls of reed grass.

Meaning: Work rushed to get it done quickly is flimsy and will not last.

Literally: What you tie on while running comes undone while running.

Meaning: Haste makes waste: a job done in a rush falls apart.

Literally: The one in a hurry spilled it and had to pick it up again.

Meaning: Rushing costs you more time than doing it carefully.

Literally: Slowly, slowly, the egg will walk on its own legs.

Meaning: With patience, small beginnings grow into something complete; give things time.

Literally: Little by little the ball of spun cotton fills up.

Meaning: Small, steady efforts add up to something big.

Literally: Changing the hearthstones does not make the stew taste better.

Meaning: Replacing the people in charge changes nothing if the way things are done stays the same.

Literally: Milk that is left to settle gives butter.

Meaning: Patience and staying in one place bring results.

Literally: What is not turned over gets burnt.

Meaning: Things left unattended, or never changed, spoil.

Literally: The dog barked after the hyena had gone.

Meaning: Acting too late, or showing courage only once the danger has passed.

Literally: Step a little further and you find thousands.

Meaning: Keep going: there are more chances ahead than the one you missed.

Literally: Before the stew is even cooked, the serving bowl is waiting.

Meaning: Do not count your chickens before they hatch.

Literally: He does not quarrel without first preparing a feast.

Meaning: Hardship comes with its own consolation; every cloud has a silver lining.

Literally: Some days, even at Waldba there is singing.

Meaning: Even in the strictest or saddest places, joy has its day. (Waldba is a famous monastery.)

Literally: Everything has its time.

Meaning: There is a right time for each thing; be patient.

Literally: If this bean is left overnight, it can no longer be crunched.

Meaning: Deal with a problem quickly, before it hardens and becomes impossible.

Literally: The hasty hyena bites the horn.

Meaning: Rushing makes you grab the wrong thing.

Literally: Breaking off leaves before the goat has arrived.

Meaning: Preparing too early, before you know it will be needed.

Literally: Better to take care beforehand than to waste away sick.

Meaning: Prevention is better than cure: guard against trouble before it comes.

Literally: If you spit while lying on your back, it falls back into your mouth.

Meaning: Spite or carelessness aimed at others comes back on you, especially when you are in a weak position.

Literally: When water sweeps you away, it does so while making you laugh.

Meaning: Ruin often comes gently and pleasantly, so you do not notice until it is too late.

Literally: Seeing the way he walks, they snatch his provisions.

Meaning: When someone looks weak or in decline, opportunists move in to take advantage.

Literally: A fallen tree trunk draws many axes.

Meaning: Once someone is down, everyone joins in attacking them.

Literally: From the mud into the mire.

Meaning: Going from bad to worse.

Literally: Trust a person only once you have buried him.

Meaning: Be careful with trust; people can change while they live.

Literally: The one who suspected nothing was uprooted.

Meaning: Being careless and unsuspecting leaves you open to ruin.

Literally: Where the dog tore a hole, the hyena gets in.

Meaning: A small weakness opens the way for a bigger danger.

Literally: When his father's house was being looted, he joined in the looting.

Meaning: Someone who, instead of protecting his own, joins those harming it.

Literally: For one born naked, when is a rag ever too little?

Meaning: Someone who started with nothing should be grateful for little.

Literally: Whether on the back or in the arms, it is still carrying.

Meaning: Two ways of doing the same thing come to the same result.

Literally: Turn a burnoose inside out and it is still a burnoose.

Meaning: A surface change does not change what something really is.

Literally: Reaching for what was on the shelf, she dropped what was under her arm.

Meaning: Grasping for more, you can lose what you already have.

Literally: The one who says 'I'm never full' spends the night vomiting.

Meaning: Greed brings its own punishment.

Literally: A person lives by his own house, not by his neighbour's.

Meaning: Live within your own means; do not copy others' lifestyles.

Literally: Whoever scorns a morsel goes to bed hungry.

Meaning: Do not despise small things; they may be all you get.

Literally: Someone else's gold does not make you shine.

Meaning: Borrowed things never truly belong to you.

Literally: When the mule was asked who her father was, she said: my mother is a horse.

Meaning: People dodge an embarrassing truth by pointing to something more flattering.

Literally: O ox, you see the grass but not the cliff.

Meaning: Greed blinds you to danger.

Literally: Tell the truth, and spend the night wherever dusk finds you.

Meaning: Speak the truth even if it costs you your comfort.

Literally: Once out of the mouth, it is at the cliff edge.

Meaning: Words once spoken cannot be taken back and soon spread.

Literally: What the belly hid, the gesho brings out.

Meaning: Drink loosens the tongue and brings out grudges kept inside. (Gesho is the plant used to brew tella and tej.)

Literally: An evil word breaks bones.

Meaning: Harsh words wound as badly as blows.

Literally: A sprained tongue cannot be rubbed better with butter.

Meaning: Hurtful words cannot be soothed away; think before you speak.

Literally: The cart ahead of the horse.

Meaning: Doing things in the wrong order.

Literally: The big jars ran out, so the little pots became jars.

Meaning: When the great are gone, lesser people take their place.

Literally: Choose among people for office, choose among wood for the tabot.

Meaning: Pick the very best for the most important roles. (The tabot is the consecrated altar tablet.)

Literally: Unless they despise the owner, they do not shake his fence.

Meaning: People only mistreat what is yours when they have no respect for you.

Literally: When you cannot get what you love, you lick what you hate.

Meaning: In need, people settle for what they would normally refuse.

Literally: What is there to choose between monkeys for beauty?

Meaning: When every option is equally bad, picking among them is pointless.

Literally: The chicken they mean to eat, they call a guinea fowl.

Meaning: People invent an excuse to justify what they have already decided to do to someone.

Literally: Do not take the one who fancies everything to market.

Meaning: Someone who wants everything cannot decide and ends up with nothing.

Literally: When a needle gets lazy, it says it cannot pierce butter.

Meaning: Someone unwilling finds an excuse even for the easiest task.

Literally: Someone pretending to sleep will not hear you however much you wake him.

Meaning: You cannot get through to a person who has decided not to listen.

Literally: Pouring water on a stone.

Meaning: Effort wasted on someone or something that will not take it in.

Literally: A thief, out of habit, licks the bread.

Meaning: Habits persist even when there is nothing to gain.

Literally: Nobody builds a house for a rainy season that has passed.

Meaning: Do not spend effort on what is over; look to what comes next.

Literally: He went into what was not his business and got smeared with what did not suit him.

Meaning: Meddling in other people's affairs brings you trouble.

Literally: The Abbay's mother is thirsty for water.

Meaning: Scarcity in the middle of plenty: failing to benefit from what is closest to you. (The Abbay is the Blue Nile.)

Literally: The ear is a stranger to its owner.

Meaning: You cannot see your own ear: others notice things about you that you do not.

Literally: Growing up together breeds disregard.

Meaning: Familiarity breeds contempt.

Literally: A prophet is not honoured in his own country.

Meaning: People undervalue the talent that is closest to home.

Literally: A bird sings in the manner of its own land.

Meaning: People follow the customs of the place they come from, or the place they are in.

Literally: While one laughs at the other, the sun goes down.

Meaning: People waste their time mocking each other's faults.

Literally: If you heard what they say about you, you would not go out to market.

Meaning: We rarely know what others say about our own faults.

Literally: One fated to toil carries a sack even in his dreams.

Meaning: Some people cannot stop worrying or working, even when there is no need.

Literally: The whip strikes and then cries out itself.

Meaning: The one who did the wrong complains the loudest.

Literally: What rumour has destroyed is more than what the spear has destroyed.

Meaning: Gossip and propaganda do more harm than weapons.

Literally: What one gossip spreads, a thousand horsemen cannot bring back.

Meaning: A rumour, once out, cannot be recalled.

Literally: Whoever digs for fish brings out a serpent.

Meaning: Prying too far uncovers something you did not want to find.

Literally: A hen, scratching and scratching, digs up a knife.

Meaning: Too much digging can uncover the thing that harms you.

Literally: Unless it gets muddy, it will not clear.

Meaning: Things often have to get worse, or come into the open, before they get better.

Literally: Not everyone who wears a turban is a priest.

Meaning: Appearances deceive; do not judge by outward signs.

Literally: Not everything that glitters is gold.

Meaning: Appearances deceive.

Literally: A gourd that time favours can break a stone.

Meaning: With fortune on their side, even the weak can beat the strong.

Literally: Man plans, God accomplishes.

Meaning: People make plans, but the outcome is not in their hands.

Literally: If the poor man did not drink butter in his dreams, paleness would kill him.

Meaning: The poor live on hopes and dreams; wishing costs nothing.

Literally: One used to selling will haggle over his own mother.

Meaning: A habit taken too far makes people forget what is sacred.

Literally: The wedding guests have arrived - start picking the peppers!

Meaning: Preparing at the last minute, when it is already too late.

Literally: If you weep from the heart, tears do not fail you.

Meaning: When you truly mean something, it shows; sincere effort finds a way.

Literally: Gathering dung where no cow has grazed.

Meaning: Looking for something where it cannot be; accusing someone without grounds.

Literally: Whoever has seen a snake jumps at a rope.

Meaning: Once bitten, twice shy.

Literally: When a hen dreams, she dreams of grain.

Meaning: People dream about what matters most to them.

Literally: I have a cow in the sky, but I never see her milk.

Meaning: A promise you never get to enjoy is worth nothing.

Literally: You do not long for a country you do not know.

Meaning: You cannot miss what you have never had.

Literally: Pound water and you get only splashes.

Meaning: Some efforts are futile however hard you try.

Literally: Here is the horse and here is the field.

Meaning: The chance to prove yourself is right in front of you.

Literally: The mouse ate it, and the grass got beaten.

Meaning: The innocent are punished for what the guilty did.

Literally: Thinks far, sleeps near.

Meaning: Someone with big plans who never gets far.

Literally: The plough beam is cut from the fool's doorstep.

Meaning: People take advantage of the naive.

Literally: While her own stew is burning, she stirs someone else's.

Meaning: Minding other people's business while neglecting your own.

Literally: Dough kneaded by a child is not enough for supper.

Meaning: Work left to the inexperienced falls short.

Literally: A fool and a piece of paper never let go of what they hold.

Meaning: A written record, like a stubborn person, keeps what it has been given.