Èèyàn-án dára ó ku ìwà; ilé dára ó ku ìgbé.
Character against beauty, wealth and destiny
Original
Èèyàn-án dára ó ku ìwà; ilé dára ó ku ìgbé.
Literal gloss
- Èèyàn-án dára a-person is-attractive ó ku ìwà there-remains character; ilé dára a-house is-fine ó ku ìgbé there-remains the-living-in-it.
Idiomatic English
"A person may be attractive, but character still matters; a home may be gorgeous, but what matters is its livability."
No translator is named in the source.
What it means
Appearance is incomplete without the quality that makes the thing usable.
Used when
Owomoyela: "Looks are not everything" Commonly said about a marriage prospect.
Notes on the translation
The construction ó ku X, "X remains," means the thing is not yet settled, the way an account is not yet paid. It is a courteous way of saying that the attractive person has not yet been assessed on the point that counts.