Kí ọmọdé tó gbọn, ìwà-a ẹ̀ á bàjẹ́.
Original
Kí ọmọdé tó gbọn, ìwà-a ẹ̀ á bàjẹ́.
Word-for-word gloss
- Kí ọmọdé tó gbọn before a-child becomes wise, ìwà-a ẹ̀ his character á bàjẹ́ will-be spoiled.
Idiomatic English
"Before a child learns wisdom, he or she will have earned a bad reputation."
Di source no name any translator.
Wetin e mean
Wisdom arrives after the damage that teaches it.
When dem dey use am
Owomoyela: "One seldom learns wisdom before one has made some blunders" Used to argue for patience with a young person.
Notes on di translation
Bàjẹ́ covers both spoiled and disgraced, so the Yorùbá does not separate the ruin of the character from the ruin of the name, and Owomoyela's "reputation" chooses one side of a word that holds both. Read against entry 33 the pair is not consistent: 33 says formation is the household's job, 34 says failure is unavoidable first. Yorùbá proverbs are tools selected for occasions, not clauses in a system.