À-bí-ì-kọ́; à-kọ́-ì-gbà; òde ló ti ńkọ́gbọ́n wálé.
Original
À-bí-ì-kọ́; à-kọ́-ì-gbà; òde ló ti ńkọ́gbọ́n wálé.
Literal gloss
- À-bí-ì-kọ́ one-born-and-not-taught; à-kọ́-ì-gbà one-taught-and-not-accepting; òde outside ló ti ńkọ́gbọ́n wálé is-where he-will-learn-wisdom home.
Idiomatic English
"A-child-that-was-never-taught-how-to-behave, a-child-that-was-taught-but-refused-to-heed-instruction: it is from outside the home that he will learn wisdom."
No translator is named in the source.
What it means
A child not formed at home will be formed by the world, on the world's harsher terms.
Used when
Owomoyela: "Look well to your child's upbringing" Also said resignedly about an adult already past correction.
Notes on the translation
The two compressed nominals are formed by the à-... ì- pattern that makes a noun out of a whole clause, and each names a distinct failure: never taught, and taught but unwilling. English needs a hyphenated chain to hold them, as Owomoyela's rendering shows. This proverb is the standard Yorùbá text on the household as the site of moral formation and is treated further in `owe-omoluabi-moral-formation`.