Ìwà ọ̀lẹ ńba ọ̀lẹ lẹ́rù; ọ̀lẹ́ pàdánù, ó ní aráyé ò fẹ́ràn òun.
Character formed and deformed
Original
Ìwà ọ̀lẹ ńba ọ̀lẹ lẹ́rù; ọ̀lẹ́ pàdánù, ó ní aráyé ò fẹ́ràn òun.
Word-for-word gloss
- Ìwà ọ̀lẹ the-lazy-person's character ńba ọ̀lẹ lẹ́rù fills the-lazy-person with-fear; ọ̀lẹ́ pàdánù the-lazy-person loses-out, ó ní he says aráyé ò fẹ́ràn òun the-world does-not love him.
Idiomatic English
"The lazy person's character fills him or her with fear; the lazy person loses all and complains that the world hates him or her."
Di source no name any translator.
Wetin e mean
The idler's losses come from his own character, and he attributes them to hostility.
When dem dey use am
Owomoyela: "Each person is more the architect of his or her own fortune than the victim of others' machinations"
Notes on di translation
Aráyé, the people of the world, is the standard Yorùbá term for the unspecified human agency blamed for misfortune, and often carries an implication of witchcraft. The proverb's target is precisely that habit of attribution.