Abanijẹ́ ba ara ẹ̀ jẹ́.
Character and other people
Original
Abanijẹ́ ba ara ẹ̀ jẹ́.
Word-for-word gloss
- Abanijẹ́ the-one-who-spoils-others ba ara ẹ̀ jẹ́ spoils himself.
Idiomatic English
"A detractor injures his own reputation."
Di source no name any translator.
Wetin e mean
Running others down damages the person doing it.
When dem dey use am
Owomoyela: "A person who maligns other people reflects badly on his own character"
Notes on di translation
The proverb turns on repeating the verb ba... jẹ́, to spoil, with the object switched from others to self, so the sentence performs the reversal it asserts. Abanijẹ́ is an agent noun built from the same verb, so all three elements are one root, which is why the Yorùbá is four words and the English is eight.