Ìwà adìẹ ní ńwí pé ká tu ìyẹ́ ẹ̀.
Where character shows
Original
Ìwà adìẹ ní ńwí pé ká tu ìyẹ́ ẹ̀.
Word-for-word gloss
- Ìwà adìẹ the-chicken's behaviour ní ńwí pé is-what says that ká tu ìyẹ́ ẹ̀ we-should pluck its feathers.
Idiomatic English
"It is the chicken's behavior that caused its wing feathers to be plucked."
Di source no name any translator.
Wetin e mean
Conduct brings its own punishment.
When dem dey use am
Said of someone whose trouble is traceable to their own behaviour rather than to malice from others. Owomoyela's note, truncated in the source used here, begins "People by their..."
Notes on di translation
Wing feathers are clipped to stop a chicken flying out of the compound, so the punishment is precisely a loss of the freedom the bird abused. That fit between offence and penalty is the point and the translation does not carry it.