Éèfín nìwà; kò ṣé-é bò mọ́ra.
Character as the ground of a person
Original
Éèfín nìwà; kò ṣé-é bò mọ́ra.
Literal gloss
- Éèfín smoke nìwà is-character; kò ṣé-é bò mọ́ra it-cannot be-covered against-the-body.
Idiomatic English
"Character is smoke; one cannot conceal it under one's clothing."
No translator is named in the source.
What it means
Character cannot be hidden.
Used when
Owomoyela: "Character will show" Said of someone maintaining a front.
Notes on the translation
Bò mọ́ra is literally to cover against the body, the gesture of hiding something under a wrapper. The image is exact: smoke is precisely the thing that escapes a covering, and it announces its source. Compare entry 9, which uses a shadow for the same claim.