Thirty-four Yorùbá proverbs on carving wood, working clay, and the calabash and pot as made objects, on what a maker can and cannot do, and on the work that outlasts the worker, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
The gbẹ́nàgbẹ́nà is the carver, from gbẹ́, to carve, reduplicated into a trade name, and the alámọ̀ is the worker in amọ̀, clay. Between them they make most of what a Yorùbá household contains: mortars, doors, house-posts, drums, divination trays, masks, pots, water jars. Alongside them sit the two vessels that recur most often in the proverb corpus, the igbá, a calabash grown rather than made, and the àwo, the china or earthenware plate, and the proverbs pair them constantly because they break in different ways.
What the corpus says about making is more sober than what it says about the forge. The carver's authority is bounded by material, as at the bead maker who cannot make a shoe. The image he carves cannot bite. The clay worker's craft supplies the corpus's standing image for intimacy, in the smoothness with which clay is worked. And several proverbs turn on the calabash, which cannot sit straight, breaks in the hands of the unlucky, holds together in the hands of the patient, and is not the vessel one takes to a stream.
Thirty-four proverbs are given here in four groups: the limits of a maker's competence, the carved and moulded object, the calabash and the pot, and what the work leaves behind. The proverbs are given in Owomoyela's texts and translations . Owomoyela's parenthetical usage notes are the basis of the Used when lines; where the wording of a note is his, it is quoted. Anything marked as the compiler's is this corpus's own and carries lower confidence.
Owomoyela prints full standard orthography with tone marks and subdots, and his texts are reproduced here as printed . He attaches no informant to any proverb, holding that proverbs are communal property .
Literal: Arọ̀lẹ̀kẹ̀ ò rọ bàtà the-bead-maker does-not fashion a-shoe; gbẹ́dó-gbẹ́dó ò rọ ojúgun the-mortar-carver does-not fashion a-shinbone.
Idiomatic: "The bead maker cannot fashion a shoe; the mortar carver cannot manufacture a shinbone."
Meaning: Each craft works its own material and cannot cross into another's.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People should stick to what they are qualified to do"
Notes: The second clause escalates the first past craft into biology: a shoe is at least a made thing, a shinbone is not, and putting them in parallel marks the limit as absolute rather than merely professional. Gbẹ́dó-gbẹ́dó, mortar-carver, is a reduplicated trade name of the same formation as gbẹ́nàgbẹ́nà. Compare entry 6 of owe-blacksmith-forge-iron, where Ògún does not work ivory.
Literal: Àkókó inú igbó woodpeckers in-the-forest ní àwọ́n lè gbẹ́ odó say they can carve mortars; ọ̀pọ̀lọ́ lódò frogs in-the-stream ó ní àwọ́n lè lọ́ ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ say they can string beads; awúrebé ní àwọ́n lè hun aṣọ the-awúrebé say they can weave cloth.
Idiomatic: "Woodpeckers in the forest say they can carve mortars; frogs in the stream say they can string beads; and awúrebe say they can weave cloth."
Meaning: Three creatures claim three trades on the strength of a superficial resemblance to the work.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "Misplaced self-confidence leads the creatures into em..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: Each claim has a plausible basis, which is what makes the proverb funny: the woodpecker strikes wood, the frog is in the water where beads are washed, the awúrebé builds something. None of them is doing the trade. The proverb is the corpus's standard rebuke to a person who mistakes an adjacent activity for a competence.
Literal: Ẹyẹ akòko-ó ní òún le gbẹ́ odó the-woodpecker says it can carve a-mortar; ta ní jẹ́ fi odó akòko gún yán jẹ who would use a-woodpecker's mortar to-pound yam to-eat?
Idiomatic: "The woodpecker boasts that it can carve a mortar; whoever used a mortar carved by the woodpecker to make pounded yam?"
Meaning: The claim has never once been tested by anyone eating the result.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The puny person's best efforts cannot amount to much"
Notes: This isolates the woodpecker from entry 2 and answers it with a rhetorical question about use rather than about capacity, which is the sharper refutation: the test of a mortar is whether anyone pounds in it. A Yorùbá mortar is carved from a single block and must take heavy repeated blows, so the standard is high.
Literal: Àwúrèbe é ní òún lè yẹ̀nà the-àwúrèbe says it can clear a-path; ta ní jẹ́ tọ ọ̀nà àwúrèbe who would follow an-àwúrèbe's path?
Idiomatic: "Àwúrebe says it can make a path; who would wish to follow a path it makes?"
Meaning: Nobody will use the product, so the claim is idle.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not offer one's services where one's abilities are inadequate"
Notes: The proverb is built on the same frame as entry 3, boast followed by a question about who would use it, and Owomoyela prints both, which shows the frame is productive rather than incidental. Path-clearing is real work in forest country and belongs with owe-road-journey-traveller.
Literal: Ògbójú ò tẹ ara ẹ̀ nÍfá the-bold-one does-not press Ifá for himself; ọ̀mọ̀ràn ò fara ẹ̀ joyè the-sage does-not use-himself to-take-a-title; ọ̀bẹ tó mú ò gbẹ́ ẹ̀kù ara ẹ̀ the-sharp knife does-not carve its-own hilt.
Idiomatic: "The intrepid person does not consult the Ifá oracle on his own behalf; the sagacious person does not enthrone himself; the sharpest knife does not carve its own hilt."
Meaning: No competence can be applied to its own possessor.
Used when: Owomoyela: "No matter how powerful and accomplished one might be, one will need other people for some things"
Notes: The third clause is the carver's contribution to the argument and it is the one that makes it physical: a blade cannot be brought to bear on the handle it is set in. Owomoyela prints this proverb twice, at 528 and 3869, with slight variation in the opening word . It also appears at entry 19 of owe-blacksmith-forge-iron and entry 4 of owe-king-chief-throne, read there for the smithy and for enthronement.
Literal: Agbára odó the-mortar's strength kò jọ agbára ìkòkò is-unlike the-pot's strength; bí a gbé odó ná á jó if we put the-mortar on-fire it burns; bí a sì gún yán nínú ìkòkò a lu and-if we pound yam in a-pot it breaks.
Idiomatic: "The strength of the mortar is not similar to the strength of the pot; if one places a mortar on the fire, it burns; if one pounds yams in a pot, it breaks."
Meaning: Each vessel is strong in one direction and fails in the other.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "To each his or her particular qu..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: This is the file's clearest statement of the carver's and potter's materials being complementary rather than ranked: wood takes impact and not heat, fired clay takes heat and not impact. The proverb is a piece of materials knowledge and is used of people's differing capacities.
Literal: Olórí yan orí the-one-whose-lot-was-the-head chose the-head; alámọ̀-ọ́ gbé amọ̀ the-clay-worker took-up clay.
Idiomatic: "He to whose lot the head fell chose the head; the one to whose lot the clay fell picked up his clay."
Meaning: Each took what was allotted and works it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Different lots to different people; each person must live with his or hers"
Notes: Yan, to choose, is the verb used in Yorùbá thought for the choosing of one's orí before birth, discussed in owe-head-face-ori, so the proverb quietly aligns the potter's material with a person's destiny: both were selected and both must now be worked. The pun on olórí and orí carries it.
Literal: Àwòrán ṣètè kólóbó an-image with small lips, igi tá a bá gbẹ́ léhìn wood whose teeth we carved ò lè bu ni jẹ cannot bite one.
Idiomatic: "An image with its small lips, a piece of wood whose teeth one carved cannot bite one."
Meaning: A thing you made the teeth of has no power over you.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A sculpture one carves with one's hands cannot do harm"
Notes: This is a striking proverb to find in a corpus that takes carved objects seriously, and its claim is about manufacture rather than about belief: the man who cut the teeth knows exactly what they are. It should be read beside entry 20 of owe-blacksmith-forge-iron, where the smith's sword does not know his head, since the two proverbs draw opposite conclusions from the same fact of making.
Literal: Ìgbà tí ṣìgìdí í bá fẹ́ẹ́ ṣe eré ẹ̀tẹ́ when the-clay-figure wants to-play at-disgrace a ní kí wọ́n gbé òun sójò it says let-them put it in-the-rain.
Idiomatic: "When the clay statue hankers for disgrace, it asks to be placed in the rain."
Meaning: It has requested the one condition that dissolves it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who so forgets himself or herself as to overreach will wind up in disgrace"
Notes: Ṣìgìdí is an unfired clay figure, so rain does not damage it, it returns it to mud. A related text appears at entry 135 of the collection and is used at entry 12 of owe-head-face-ori for the limbs falling off. The proverb is the corpus's standard image for someone courting an exposure they will not survive.
Literal: Tímọ́-tímọ́ closely-closely letí ḿmọ́ orí is-how the-ear adheres to-the-head, tìmọ́-tìmọ́ smoothly-smoothly lalámọ̀ ń gún amọ̀ is-how the-clay-worker pounds clay.
Idiomatic: "Closely is the manner of the ear's attachment to the head; smoothly is the way the clay worker pounds his clay."
Meaning: Some joinings are meant to be without any gap at all.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An admonition to people to remain intimate"
Notes: The two reduplicated ideophones differ only in tone and carry the whole proverb, which English cannot reproduce. Clay is pounded to drive out air pockets, since a pot with air in the body will burst in firing, so the smoothness the potter works for is structural rather than cosmetic, and the proverb's model of intimacy is correspondingly exact. This text also appears at entry 8 of owe-ears-hearing-mouth.
Literal: Erin-ín wó the-elephant fell, wọ́n fìwo-o rẹ̀ gbẹ́ ike they carved its tusk into ivory-work; ẹfọ̀n-ọ́n wó the-buffalo fell, wọ́n fìwo-o rẹ̀ tẹ poolo they made its horn into a poolo.
Idiomatic: "An elephant dies, and its tusks are carved into ivory; a buffalo dies, and its horns are made into a poolo."
Meaning: What survives the animal is the part a craftsman can work.
Used when: Owomoyela's note is truncated in the source consulted; the full text continues with a third clause about an antelope . In use the proverb observes what a death leaves usable.
Notes: Ivory carving is a documented Yorùbá court art, associated particularly with Owo and Benin work, and the proverb records the trade rather than inventing an image. It belongs with entry 22 of this file and with owe-death-ancestors-beyond.
Literal: Bí a kò bá tíì lè kọ́lé if we are not-yet able to-build a-house, àgọ́ là ń pa it-is a-tent we pitch.
Idiomatic: "If one is yet unable to build a house, one makes a tent."
Meaning: Build the lesser structure rather than nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should neither overreach oneself nor refrain from striving"
Notes: Owomoyela's gloss catches both halves of the proverb, which is doing two jobs at once: it forbids the pretence of building a house and forbids doing nothing. Àgọ́ is a temporary shelter, so the recommendation is explicitly provisional.
Literal: À ń kọ́lé ikin we build houses of-palm-nut-thatch, à ń yọ̀dẹ̀dẹ̀ imọ̀ we make verandas of-palm-fronds, hòrò ni ilé àgbékẹ́hìn the-grave is the-final dwelling.
Idiomatic: "Though we build houses of thatch, though we make corridors of palm leaves, it is to a grave that we will retire in the end."
Meaning: Every structure a person raises is temporary accommodation.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whatever a person's riches, in the end he or she winds up in a grave"
Notes: Ilé àgbékẹ́hìn, the house one occupies last, is a standing Yorùbá expression for the grave, so the proverb's final clause is not a metaphor invented for the occasion but the ordinary term. Building is the whole vocabulary of the sentence, which is what places it in this file rather than only in owe-death-ancestors-beyond.
Literal: À-tí-kékeré from-smallness làràmàjà-á ti ń la lé kọ́ is-when the-crab begins building its-house.
Idiomatic: "It is from its youth that the crab learns to build its house."
Meaning: The adult competence was begun long before it was needed.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The nature of the adult is apparent in the child"
Notes: The crab digs its burrow from the beginning of its life, so the proverb reasons from an observable habit to a claim about formation, and it belongs beside entry 33 of owe-iwa-character on the household as the site of moral training. Compare owe-apprentice-learning-mastery, where the same argument is applied to a trade.
Literal: Èké mọ ilé-e rẹ̀ the-deceitful-one built his house ó wó it collapsed; ọ̀dàlẹ́ mọ tirẹ̀ the-traitor built his ó bì dànù it toppled over.
Idiomatic: "The devious person builds a house, and it collapses; the treacherous person builds one, and it tumbles in ruins."
Meaning: What such a person constructs does not stand.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Evil people will not profit from their enterprises"
Notes: Mọ, to build with mud, is the specific verb for raising a wall in the Yorùbá manner, by laying courses of puddled earth, which is also the potter's material. The proverb assumes a moral physics in which construction registers the builder's character, and it is one of the corpus's clearer instances of that assumption. Compare entry 11 of owe-iwa-character, where the fine house lacks the load-bearing pillar.
Literal: Igbá olóore kì í fọ́ the-kind-person's calabash does-not break; àwo olóore kì í fàya the-kind-person's plate does-not crack.
Idiomatic: "The calabash of a kindhearted person never breaks; the china plate of a kindhearted person never cracks." Owomoyela's fuller text adds that riches and children converge in the kind person's house .
Meaning: The generous person's household is preserved from ordinary losses.
Used when: Said as a blessing on a generous person, or as an argument for generosity .
Notes: The two vessels break differently and the Yorùbá marks it: fọ́ is used of a calabash, which shatters, and fàya of a plate, which splits. English "break" flattens the pair. Entry 17 is the same proverb with patience in place of kindness, which shows the frame is a template.
Literal: Igbá onípẹ̀lẹ́ kì í fọ́ the-gentle-person's calabash does-not break; àwo onípẹ̀lẹ́ kì í fàya the-gentle-person's plate does-not crack.
Idiomatic: "The calabash belonging to a patient person never breaks; the china plate belonging to a patient person never cracks."
Meaning: Careful handling is what keeps a household's vessels whole.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Patient people never come to grief" Owomoyela notes this is a variant of the preceding entry .
Notes: This version is the more literal of the pair, since gentleness genuinely does preserve crockery, and entry 16 extends the same claim to kindness where the causal link is moral rather than physical. Owomoyela printing both consecutively lets the reader see a proverb being generalised.
Literal: Ṣe igbá ilé jẹ́jẹ́ handle the-home calabash gently; a ò mọ ìwà tí toko yó hù we do-not know the-character the-farm-one will grow.
Idiomatic: "Handle the home calabash with care; no one knows how the farm calabash will behave."
Meaning: Look after what you have, because the replacement is unknown.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Be good to the things and people you already have; you can never be sure what you might end up with if you were to trade them for new ones"
Notes: This proverb also appears at entry 52 of owe-iwa-character, read there for what attributing ìwà to a calabash implies. Placed here its interest is the object: calabashes are grown, dried and cured, and one already in the house is a known quantity in a way an untried one is not.
Literal: Ó di orí igbá it comes-to the-calabash; a kì í mú àwo lọ sódò lọ pọn mi one does-not take a-plate to-the-stream to-draw water.
Idiomatic: "Problems converge on the calabash; no one takes a china plate to the stream to draw water."
Meaning: The rough work falls to the vessel that can take it, and the fine one is not asked.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People should not be approached with matters that are inappropriate for them"
Notes: The calabash is light, cheap and replaceable and therefore does the carrying, while the imported plate stays in the house, so the proverb records a real division between local and traded goods. It reads two ways in use, as a complaint by the calabash and as a rule about whom to ask, and both are current.
Literal: Rógódó ìdí igbá the-knob at-the-base of-a-calabash ò jẹ́ kó jókòó-ore does-not let it sit well.
Idiomatic: "The protrusion at the base of the calabash keeps it from sitting straight."
Meaning: A small feature of its own construction prevents it doing the simple thing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An obstacle prevents one from acting as one might wish"
Notes: The knob is the scar where the gourd joined its vine, so the impediment is a fact of the calabash's growth rather than a fault of workmanship. That distinction is the proverb's point when it is applied to people: the obstacle is constitutional and not chosen. Compare entry 7 above, where the material is what was allotted.
Literal: Ìtàkùn tó so igbá the-vine that bore the-calabash, tó so agbè that bore the-gourd, ló so elégédé is-what bore the-pumpkin.
Idiomatic: "The same vine that grew a calabash and grew a gourd also grew a pumpkin."
Meaning: Three different things came off one stock.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of people who are of the same stock but harbor enmity toward one another"
Notes: The botany is loose and the rhetorical point is exact: the three are cucurbits and the proverb treats them as siblings. This is the file's reminder that a calabash is agricultural before it is a vessel, and it belongs with owe-family-lineage-compound.
Literal: Ó di ẹ̀hìn ìgbín it-awaits the-aftermath of-the-snail ká tó fi ìkarahun ẹ̀ họ igbá before we use its shell to-scrape a-calabash.
Idiomatic: "Not until the demise of the snail can one use its shell to scoop out the inside of a calabash."
Meaning: The tool only becomes available once its owner is gone.
Used when: Owomoyela: "As long as one is still around, one does not permit one's interests to be assaulted without making a scene" Owomoyela cross-references 4348 .
Notes: Scraping out the pulp with a snail shell is the actual method of preparing a calabash, so the proverb describes a real step in the craft. It belongs beside entry 11, where the elephant's tusk becomes carving: the corpus repeatedly notes that a made object begins with something's death.
Literal: Bí a bá pọn omi if we draw water, tó dànù and-it spills, tí agbè ò fọ́ and-the gourd is-not broken, à tún òmíràn pọn we draw another.
Idiomatic: "If one draws water and it is spilled but the gourd is unbroken, one refills the gourd."
Meaning: As long as the vessel survives, the loss is recoverable.
Used when: Owomoyela: "As long as one has a capacity to act, temporary setbacks are of little consequence"
Notes: The proverb distinguishes the contents from the container and puts all the weight on the second, which is the file's most useful practical distinction: a spilled load is an incident and a broken vessel is a change of circumstances.
Literal: Ibi tí ó tòrò where it is-clear ò mu agbè does-not take the-gourd; ibi tó mu agbè-é léwu where it takes the-gourd is-dangerous.
Idiomatic: "The place where the water is clear is not deep enough for the gourd; the place where the water is deep enough, though, is dangerous."
Meaning: The shallow water is safe and useless and the deep water is useful and dangerous.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is no boon without its dangers"
Notes: Filling a large gourd requires submerging it, which needs depth, so the dilemma is a real one for anyone fetching water. The proverb states a trade-off rather than recommending a side, which is characteristic of the corpus's practical proverbs.
Literal: Agbè ní ń jẹ ẹ̀gbin omi it-is the-gourd that takes the-dirt of-the-water; àgbàlagbà ní ń jẹ ìyà ọ̀rọ̀ it-is the-elder that takes the-suffering of-a-dispute.
Idiomatic: "It is the gourd that inherits the dregs of water; it is the elder that inherits the unpleasantness of a dispute."
Meaning: Sediment settles in the container and trouble settles on the senior person.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Every position carries its responsibilities"
Notes: The analogy is precise: dirt in water is not the gourd's fault and it accumulates there because the gourd is what holds the water. The proverb belongs with owe-elders-seniority-respect and states the cost side of the seniority the corpus elsewhere praises.
Literal: Àsọ̀rọ̀-àìlàdí speaking-without-explaining ló pa Elempe ìṣáájú killed the-first Elempe tó ní igbá wúwo ju àwo who said a-calabash is-heavier than a-plate.
Idiomatic: "Speaking-without-explaining killed the first Elempe who said that calabash was heavier than china."
Meaning: He stated something true under a condition he failed to name, and it destroyed him.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Excessive economy in speech leads to obscurity"
Notes: A calabash is lighter than a china plate, so the claim is false as stated and defensible only with the missing qualification, which the proverb withholds along with Elempe. The proverb is quoted against the habit of stating a conclusion without its condition, and it belongs with owe-speech-silence-tongue.
Literal: Àgbẹ̀jẹ-ẹ́ gbà wọ́n là tán the-pumpkin having-saved them completely, wọ́n ní ká paá ní páńṣá they said let-it be-cut into ordinary-calabashes.
Idiomatic: "After the pumpkin had saved them (in a famine), they ordered that it be cut into ordinary calabash."
Meaning: The thing that carried them through the famine was demoted to kitchenware once the famine ended.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Never forget those who stick by you in your times of difficulty"
Notes: The proverb turns on the double life of the gourd, food while soft and vessel when dried and hollowed, so the demotion is a real culinary and craft sequence rather than an invented insult. It is the file's sharpest statement about ingratitude and belongs with owe-gratitude-ingratitude-reciprocity.
Literal: Bí Onírese ò fín gbá mọ́ if Onírese carves calabashes no-longer, èyí tó ti fín ò lè parun those he has-already carved cannot perish.
Idiomatic: "If Onírese stops carving calabashes, those he has carved will not perish."
Meaning: The output survives the end of the capacity to produce it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whatever one has accomplished cannot be undone, even after one has lost the capacity to accomplish more"
Notes: Onírese is a title, the ruler of Ìrese, so the carver named here holds an office, which makes the proverb also a claim about what a reign leaves. Fín is the specific verb for incising a pattern into a calabash surface, a documented Yorùbá decorative craft distinct from gbẹ́, carving in the round. This is the file's most consoling proverb.
Literal: À kọ́lé bíríkótó we built a-small house, a ní kí òrìṣà gbà á we asked the-òrìṣà to-accept it.
Idiomatic: "We build a modest shrine and implore the god to accept it."
Meaning: What was built is small and is offered as what there was.
Used when: Owomoyela's fuller text continues that if the òrìṣà will not accept it, let him go to the forest for stakes and to the grassland for rope and find out for himself how hard the work is .
Notes: The continuation is the substance and it is unusually blunt: the god is invited to try building it himself. This is the same register of frank address to an òrìṣà found in owe-orisa-tradition-speech, and it is evidence that the relationship in Yorùbá practice admits complaint. Only the first clause is given as the heading because the full text is long and the opening circulates.
Literal: Ohun mẹ́ta three things la kì í wí pé kọ́rẹ̀ẹ́ ẹni má ṣe we do-not tell a-friend not to-do: a kì í wí pé kọ́rẹ̀ẹ́ ẹni má kọ̀ọ́lé we do-not tell a-friend not to-build-a-house.
Idiomatic: "Three things one does not tell one's friend not to do: one does not tell a friend not to build a house."
Meaning: Building is one of the undertakings a friend may not discourage.
Used when: Owomoyela's full text names the other two as taking a wife and going to farm the land .
Notes: The three named undertakings are the constitutive acts of establishing an adult household in Yorùbá terms, which is why advice against them is barred: to discourage them is to wish a man unestablished. Only the building clause is given here; the full text belongs with owe-family-lineage-compound.
Literal: Àgbà ló tó Orò-ó lọ̀ it-is an-elder who is-fit to-invoke Orò; ọba ló tó ehín erin-ín fun it-is a-king who is-fit to-blow an-elephant-tusk.
Idiomatic: "Only a [male] elder is qualified to invoke Orò; only a king is qualified to blow a horn carved out of elephant tusk."
Meaning: Certain made objects may only be used by people of a certain standing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Certain tasks are for august people only"
Notes: The ivory trumpet is a royal instrument and its use is restricted, so the proverb records regalia rather than describing a preference. Orò is the cult discussed at entry 23 of owe-ears-hearing-mouth. Both clauses concern a carved object whose maker is not the person entitled to use it, which is the file's recurring separation of manufacture from authority.
Literal: Ẹni tó fọ́ koto ejò whoever breaks the-pot housing a-snake ni yó gbè é is-who will carry it.
Idiomatic: "It is the person who breaks the gourd housing a snake who will carry the snake." Translator: Owomoyela, rendering the second clause of a two-part proverb .
Meaning: Whoever releases the thing has acquired it.
Used when: Owomoyela's gloss for the full proverb: "Each person is responsible for the consequences of his or her own actions" The first clause runs that whoever kills a person will carry the corpse .
Notes: The vessel here is a container of something dangerous, which is a use of pots the corpus notes elsewhere in connection with medicine. The proverb is about liability arising from an act of breaking, and it belongs with owe-punishment-mercy-consequence.
Literal: Oru là dugbó because-you carry a-large pot ò ń rera you strut.
Idiomatic: "Because you are carrying a huge pot, you strut; what would one say to the person carrying the divinity Yemọja?"
Meaning: Your load is large and someone is carrying something incomparably greater.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Never assume to be more important than you are, especially when there are really more important..." and the note is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: The comparison sets a domestic water pot against the carried emblem of Yemọja in procession, so the scale of the rebuke is ritual rather than merely physical. Because the extraction breaks the opening clause, the literal gloss above is reconstructed from the printed English and marked as such. Confidence on the literal gloss: medium.
Literal: Ajá ní ń lá omi lẹ́bàá-lẹ́bàá it-is a-dog that laps water at-the-edges; ọmọ orí igbá ò fìdí kalẹ̀ the-calabash lid does-not sit firmly down.
Idiomatic: "It is a dog that licks water with its tongue; the lid of a calabash cannot sit straight upright."
Meaning: Each thing has a characteristic behaviour that follows from its shape.
Used when: Owomoyela's note begins "Certain things are characteristic of ..." and is truncated in the source consulted .
Notes: The calabash lid is a cut hemisphere and will not stand on its dome, which is the same geometric fact as entry 20's basal knob approached from the other end of the vessel. The proverb closes the file on the note it opened with at entry 1: things do what their construction permits.
Three observations across these thirty-four proverbs.
The corpus is more interested in materials than in makers. The named craftsmen appear briefly, at entries 1, 7 and 28, and most of the file is about what wood, clay, calabash and plate will and will not do. Entry 6 sets the mortar against the pot on the evidence of fire and impact, entry 16 distinguishes shattering from cracking with two different verbs, entry 20 traces an inconvenience to a scar left by a vine. This is a craft vocabulary being used to think with, and the literal glosses are where it is visible.
Making confers no authority over the thing made, and the corpus says so twice in opposite directions. Entry 8 has a carved image that cannot bite the man who cut its teeth, which is reassuring. Entry 20 of owe-blacksmith-forge-iron has a sword that cannot pick out the smith's head, which is not. Both proceed from the same premise, that the maker knows exactly what the object is, and they draw a comfort and a warning from it. Neither cancels the other.
Work outlasts the worker, and that is stated without sentiment. Entry 28 says the carved calabashes survive the carver's retirement, entry 13 says every house built ends at a grave, entry 11 says the elephant's death is when the ivory begins, and entry 22 says the snail must die before its shell becomes a tool. The corpus treats the durability of made things as a plain fact with consequences in both directions, and it does not resolve them into a moral.
Thirty-two Yorùbá proverbs on the blacksmith and his trade, the forge and its tools, iron as material, and Ògún as the power standing behind the craft, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Fifty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on character, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Forty-eight Yorùbá proverbs on the ọmọlúàbí ideal, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Sourced Yorùbá proverbs about telling the truth, the mechanics of lying and self-deception, and the value placed on a person whose word is reliable.
Forty-three Yorùbá proverbs on sùúrù, patience, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Fifty-five Yorùbá proverbs on pride, arrogance, humility, and the limits of what a person can know about themselves, each given with the original, a literal gloss, and a named translation.