Ọ̀rẹ́ pọ̀; ìwà àti ìkà inú-u wọn ò dọ́gba.
Character and other people
Original
Ọ̀rẹ́ pọ̀; ìwà àti ìkà inú-u wọn ò dọ́gba.
Literal gloss
- Ọ̀rẹ́ pọ̀ friends are-many; ìwà àti ìkà inú-u wọn the-character and the-wickedness inside them ò dọ́gba are-not equal.
Idiomatic English
"Friends abound, but their character and their wickedness are very different."
No translator is named in the source.
What it means
The category "friend" tells you nothing about the person in it.
Used when
Owomoyela: "Friendship does not mean compatibility or mutual good will"
Notes on the translation
Ìkà, wickedness, is set directly beside ìwà in a way that treats it as a kind of character rather than as its absence, which is consistent with Yorùbá usage where ìwà is neutral and takes rere (good) or búburú (bad) as needed.