Ìwà lòrìṣà; bí a ti hù ú sí ní ńgbeni sí.
Character as the ground of a person
Original
Ìwà lòrìṣà; bí a ti hù ú sí ní ńgbeni sí.
Glose littérale
- Ìwà character lòrìṣà is-an-òrìṣà; bí a ti hù ú sí as we cultivate it ní ńgbeni sí is-how it-supports-one.
Anglais idiomatique
"Character is a god; just as one lives it, so it succors one."
Aucun traducteur n'est nommé dans la source.
Ce que cela signifie
Character functions the way a deity does: it is served, and it responds to the quality of service.
Employé quand
Owomoyela: "One's fortune depends on one's character"
Notes sur la traduction
Hù is the verb used of a plant putting out growth, so hù ìwà is to grow character rather than to have it. The proverb makes an unusually strong claim by Yorùbá standards, placing character in the category of òrìṣà, and it is one of the texts most often cited in the scholarly argument that Yorùbá ethics is not simply derived from religious command. The next entry makes the same move with ẹ̀sìn, worship.