Òwe on Etí and Ẹnu: Ears, Hearing and the Mouth
Thirty-two Yorùbá proverbs on the ear as the organ of instruction and intelligence, deafness as a figure for obstinacy, and the mouth as the organ that eats, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.
Etí is the ear, and in Yorùbá proverb it is not a passive organ. It is where instruction lands, where intelligence arrives, and where a person's reach into the affairs of others is measured. A person said to have long ears has informants, not large anatomy. Against that stands adití, the deaf person, who in this corpus is rarely a figure of pity and almost always a figure for someone who will not be told: the ear that cannot receive is the model for the mind that refuses to.
This file collects thirty-two proverbs on the ear, on hearing and deafness, and on the mouth in its capacity as the organ that eats and tastes. The mouth as the organ of speech is treated separately and at length in owe-speech-silence-tongue, and none of the forty-eight proverbs collected there is repeated here. Where a proverb in this file touches speech, it does so from the receiving end.
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.
A note on sources
Owomoyela prints full standard orthography with tone marks and subdots, and his texts are reproduced here as printed . He declines to attach a named informant to any proverb, holding that proverbs are communal property , so the texts are attested but not localised or dated.
The ear as the organ of instruction
1. Ajá tí ò létí ò ṣé-é dẹ̀gbẹ́.
Literal: Ajá tí ò létí a-dog that has-no ears ò ṣé-é dẹ̀gbẹ́ cannot be-used to-stalk-game.
Idiomatic: "A dog without ears is no good for stalking prey."
Meaning: A creature that cannot take direction is useless for the work.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who cannot be instructed is useless" Said of a subordinate or apprentice who will not be told.
Notes: Létí, to have ears, is also the ordinary Yorùbá idiom for being obedient or attentive, so the proverb reads at once as a statement about hunting dogs and as a statement about people, and the hearer does not have to choose. Owomoyela prints this proverb twice, at 727 and 2434, with the same text and translation . Hunting with dogs is real practice here, not a figure: a dog that will not respond to a call ruins the hunt.
2. Ọ̀rọ̀ lọmọ etí ń jẹ.
Literal: Ọ̀rọ̀ words lọmọ etí ń jẹ are-what the-child-of-the-ear eats.
Idiomatic: "Words are what the child of the ear eats."
Meaning: Correction is the ear's proper diet, and it has to be swallowed.
Used when: Owomoyela: "People who misbehave must endure tongue lashing"
Notes: Ọmọ etí, the child of the ear, is a Yorùbá formation of the ọmọ + noun kind that names the inner or essential part of a thing. The proverb feeds the ear the way the mouth is fed, which is the file's neatest crossing of its two organs: what the mouth does with food, the ear does with rebuke.
3. Etí, gbọ́ èkejì kí o tó dájọ́.
Literal: Etí ear, gbọ́ èkejì hear the-second kí o tó dájọ́ before you pass-judgment.
Idiomatic: "Ear, hear the other side before passing judgment."
Meaning: A judgement made on one account is not a judgement.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not form an opinion after hearing only one side of an argument"
Notes: The proverb is addressed to the ear as though the ear were a person, which is the vocative Yorùbá reserves for admonishing a part of oneself. Its force is procedural rather than moral: this is the rule of a hearing, and it is quoted in dispute settlement as such. Compare entry 4, which states the same rule without the vocative, and entry 5, which locates it in the king's court.
4. A kì í gbọ́ ẹjọ́ ẹnìkan dájọ́.
Literal: A kì í gbọ́ ẹjọ́ ẹnìkan one does-not hear the-case of-one-person dájọ́ and-pass-judgment.
Idiomatic: "One does not deliver a verdict after hearing only one side."
Meaning: A verdict requires both accounts.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Justice requires impartiality and a full hearing"
Notes: Ẹjọ́ is a formal case brought before a court or an elder, not a private disagreement, so this is a statement of legal principle in proverb form. Yorùbá adjudication is conducted orally and the ear is therefore the instrument of the court, which is why a file on hearing necessarily overlaps a file on justice.
5. Ẹ̀ẹ̀mejì letí ọlọ́jà ń gbọ́rọ̀.
Literal: Ẹ̀ẹ̀mejì twice letí ọlọ́jà ń gbọ́rọ̀ is-how the-king's ear hears a-matter.
Idiomatic: "The ears of the king hear everything twice."
Meaning: The office requires hearing the matter from each side before it is decided.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever will judge a case must hear it twice from both sides of the dispute"
Notes: Ọlọ́jà, literally the owner of the market, is a designation for a king, since the main market is his and is sited by the palace; Owomoyela notes the usage elsewhere in the collection . The proverb makes double hearing a mark of the office rather than a personal virtue, which is a stronger claim than entries 3 and 4 make.
6. Etí tó gbọ́ àlọ ni yó gbọ̀ọ́ àbọ̀.
Literal: Etí tó gbọ́ àlọ the-ear that heard the-going ni yó gbọ̀ọ́ àbọ̀ is-what will hear the-returning.
Idiomatic: "The same ears that heard about the departure will hear about the return."
Meaning: Whoever was told the beginning is owed the end.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever is privy to the genesis of an affair will [must] be privy to its conclusion"
Notes: Owomoyela's bracketed "[must]" records a real ambiguity: the Yorùbá states a prediction and is used as an obligation. Àlọ and àbọ̀, the going and the coming back, are a fixed Yorùbá pair, and the proverb is commonly cited by someone insisting on being kept informed of a matter they were consulted about at the outset.
7. Etí kì í tóbi kó gbọ́ ọ̀rọ̀ méje lẹ́ẹ̀kan ṣoṣo.
Literal: Etí kì í tóbi ears are-never so-big kó gbọ́ ọ̀rọ̀ méje that-they hear seven matters lẹ́ẹ̀kan ṣoṣo at-one single-time.
Idiomatic: "Ears are never so large that they can hear [decipher] seven messages all at once."
Meaning: There is a fixed limit to how much a person can take in at once.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is an existential limit to human capabilities"
Notes: The construction kì í tóbi kó ..., "is never so big that," is the same frame as entry 1 of owe-head-face-ori, where no head is too heavy for its owner. Here the frame delivers a limit rather than a reassurance, which shows the construction is neutral and the proverb supplies the direction. Seven is a conventional Yorùbá plurality rather than a count.
8. Tímọ́-tímọ́ letí ḿmọ́ orí; tìmọ́-tìmọ́ lalámọ̀ ń gún amọ̀.
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 attachments are meant to be without gap.
Used when: Owomoyela: "An admonition to people to remain intimate" Said to relatives or partners who have grown distant.
Notes: The two reduplicated ideophones tímọ́-tímọ́ and tìmọ́-tìmọ́ differ only in tone and carry the whole proverb; English has to translate them as "closely" and "smoothly" and loses the fact that they are nearly the same word. The ear is chosen because it is attached along its whole length rather than joined at a point.
Deafness and the refusal to hear
9. Àgbo kan là ń rọ́ Ifá adití.
Literal: Àgbo kan one full-volume là ń rọ́ Ifá adití is-how we recite Ifá for-the-deaf.
Idiomatic: "It is with full voice volume that one recites divination verses for the deaf."
Meaning: The method has to match the hearer's capacity.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One cannot be too subtle with the daft"
Notes: Ifá verses are ordinarily chanted at conversational pitch by a babaláwo to a client seated close by, so raising the voice is a departure from the decorum of the consultation, and the proverb concedes that decorum sometimes has to go. Compare entry 10, which is the same proverb in a second recension.
10. Kóró-kóró là ń dá Ifá adití.
Literal: Kóró-kóró loudly-loudly là ń dá Ifá adití is-how we cast Ifá for-the-deaf.
Idiomatic: "Very loud is the way one consults Ifá for a deaf person."
Meaning: As entry 9.
Used when: Owomoyela gives two readings: "One should match one's actions to the circumstances. Or, one should err on the side of repetitiousness in cautioning an obstinate person"
Notes: Owomoyela's double gloss is worth keeping rather than resolving, since the second reading converts the deaf man into a stubborn one and that is how the proverb is most often used. Dá Ifá, to cast Ifá, is the technical term for the divination act itself, where entry 9 has rọ́, to recite the verse that follows; the two proverbs therefore name different stages of one procedure.
11. Kí adití baà gbọ́rọ̀ la ti ń sọ ọ́ lójú ọmọ ẹ̀.
Literal: Kí adití baà gbọ́rọ̀ so-that the-deaf-one might hear-the-matter la ti ń sọ ọ́ is-why we say it lójú ọmọ ẹ̀ in-the-presence of-his-child.
Idiomatic: "It is so that a deaf person might hear something that one says it in his or her child's presence."
Meaning: What cannot be said to a person directly is said where someone close to them will carry it.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One way of making one's opinion known to a person one cannot or dares not speak to is to say it in the hearing of someone close to that person"
Notes: This proverb describes a real and named Yorùbá speech tactic rather than recommending a general attitude, and it is unusually explicit about its own method. It is the mechanism behind much indirect Yorùbá correction, including the use of proverbs themselves, since a proverb spoken in company allows the person meant to hear it without being addressed. A related text appears at entry 32 of owe-speech-silence-tongue.
12. Orin kan tí adití bá gbọ́ kó tó dití ni ń tẹnu mọ́ láé-láé.
Literal: Orin kan tí adití bá gbọ́ the-one song the-deaf-one heard kó tó dití before he-became deaf ni ń tẹnu mọ́ láé-láé is-what he-persists-in forever.
Idiomatic: "The one song the deaf person heard before going deaf is the one he will sing repeatedly forever."
Meaning: A person cut off from new information keeps repeating the last thing they received.
Used when: Owomoyela: "It is difficult to move people fixated on one thing to something else"
Notes: The proverb is a precise description of intellectual isolation and is used of someone whose opinions stopped being updated years ago. Tẹnu mọ́, literally to press the mouth to, is to insist on or harp on, so the mouth's persistence is explicitly the consequence of the ear's closure, which is the argument of the file in one sentence.
13. Ọmọ́ kú lọ́wọ́ adití; ọ̀rọ́ di kàti-kàti.
Literal: Ọmọ́ kú lọ́wọ́ adití a-child died in-the-hands of-a-deaf-person; ọ̀rọ́ di kàti-kàti the-matter became tangled.
Idiomatic: "A child dies in the care of a deaf person; matters become a muddle."
Meaning: When the responsible party cannot be questioned, the truth cannot be established.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Coming to an understanding with a person beyond communication is a formidable task"
Notes: Kàti-kàti is an ideophone for confusion or entanglement with no clean English equivalent. The scene is an inquest that cannot proceed, and the proverb is grim in a way Owomoyela's "formidable task" understates: the child is dead and no account of it can be had.
14. Adití wo ni lẹ́nu sùn-ùn.
Literal: Adití the-deaf-person wo ni lẹ́nu looks-at one at-the-mouth sùn-ùn fixedly.
Idiomatic: "The deaf person stares fixedly at people's mouths."
Meaning: Deprived of one faculty, a person presses the remaining one into service.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One acts according to one's capabilities"
Notes: Sùn-ùn is an ideophone for a fixed, unblinking stare. This is the one proverb in the deafness group that is descriptive rather than mocking, and it is the file's clearest instance of the eye taking over the ear's office, which is why it sits at the seam between this file and owe-eyes-seeing-blindness.
15. Nítorí adití ló jò fí ń ṣú; nítorí afọ́jú ló ṣe ń kù.
Literal: Nítorí adití because-of the-deaf ló jò fí ń ṣú is-why rain-clouds gather-dark; nítorí afọ́jú because-of the-blind ló ṣe ń kù is-why it rumbles.
Idiomatic: "It is for the benefit of deaf people that rain clouds gather; it is for the benefit of the blind that thunder rumbles."
Meaning: The world announces itself in more than one channel so that no one is without warning.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The wise person should be able to read portents and take precautions"
Notes: The logic is a chiasmus and it is exact: the deaf cannot hear thunder but can see the sky darken, the blind cannot see the sky but can hear the thunder. The proverb is generous where most of the deafness proverbs are not, and it treats the two impairments as covered rather than as failings. It appears again in owe-eyes-seeing-blindness, which is the other half of its subject.
16. Àgbọ́ ká etí ọlọ́ràn á di.
Literal: Àgbọ́ ká hearing-everything etí ọlọ́ràn the-ear of-the-busybody á di will become-blocked.
Idiomatic: "The ear that will insist on hearing everything will go deaf."
Meaning: Wanting to hear everything is punished with hearing nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There is some benefit to ignoring certain things"
Notes: Ọlọ́ràn is the person who makes everything their business, and the proverb's threat is proportionate rather than moral: the organ overused fails. Set against entries 27 and 28, which praise the person whose ears reach everywhere, this proverb contradicts them directly, and the corpus does not reconcile the two.
17. Kì í jẹ́ kí etí ẹni di kì í jẹ́ kí inú ẹni dùn.
Literal: Kì í jẹ́ kí etí ẹni di what does-not let one's ear be-blocked kì í jẹ́ kí inú ẹni dùn does-not let one's inside be-sweet.
Idiomatic: "Whatever keeps one from being deaf to certain things keeps one from being happy."
Meaning: The inability to ignore things is the same faculty as the inability to be content.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Learn to turn a deaf ear to certain things for the sake of your peace of mind"
Notes: Inú dùn, the inside is sweet, is the ordinary Yorùbá phrase for happiness, so the proverb sets the ear and the belly in a direct trade: what the one takes in, the other pays for. Deliberate deafness is recommended here as a discipline, which inverts the whole deafness group above.
18. Bí etí kò gbọ́ yìnkìn, inú kì í bàjẹ́.
Literal: Bí etí kò gbọ́ yìnkìn if the-ear does-not hear bad-news, inú kì í bàjẹ́ the-inside does-not spoil.
Idiomatic: "If the ears do not hear bad news, the mind does not become unhappy."
Meaning: Distress enters through the ear and does not arise on its own.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Depression does not occur for no reason; it follows bad tidings"
Notes: Inú bàjẹ́, the inside is spoiled, is the standard expression for grief or anger, and it is the exact negative of inú dùn in entry 17, so the two proverbs are a matched pair on the same mechanism. The Yorùbá claim is causal and diagnostic: look for what was heard.
19. Atẹ̀hìn-rọ́gbọ́n a-gé-etí-ajá; a gé e létí tán ó fabẹ pamọ́.
Literal: Atẹ̀hìn-rọ́gbọ́n one-who-finds-wisdom-afterwards, a-gé-etí-ajá dog-with-cut-ears; a gé e létí tán having finished cutting its ears ó fabẹ pamọ́ he hid the-razor.
Idiomatic: "A-creature-that-learns-wisdom-in-reverse-order, dog-with-severed-ears: after its ears have been severed, it hides the razor."
Meaning: Precaution taken after the injury is not precaution.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Prevention makes sense only before the disaster"
Notes: Both compressed nominals are oríkì-style epithets, the naming form discussed at entry 45 of owe-iwa-character, so the proverb opens by titling the fool before describing him. Cropping a dog's ears was done to hunting dogs, which connects this entry to the working animal of entry 1.
The ear as reach and intelligence
20. Etí-i baba nílé, etí-i baba lóko, èèyàn ní ń jẹ́ bẹ́ẹ̀.
Literal: Etí-i baba nílé father's ear at-home, etí-i baba lóko father's ear at-the-farm, èèyàn ní ń jẹ́ bẹ́ẹ̀ it-is people that is-called that.
Idiomatic: "'Father's ears encompass the house, father's ears reach to the farm' spells 'people.'"
Meaning: A man who knows what happens everywhere does not have unusual ears, he has relatives and dependants everywhere.
Used when: Owomoyela: "A person who is privy to what goes on everywhere has people everywhere"
Notes: The proverb sets up a riddle and answers it in its last clause, which is a common Yorùbá proverb shape. Èèyàn, people, is the same word that carries the Yorùbá concept of wealth-in-people, and the proverb is a plain statement that intelligence is a function of social connection. Compare entry 21, which makes the same point through a body turned entirely into ears.
21. Ẹni tí a bú lẹ́hìn tó gbọ́, a-bẹtí-í-lù-lára-bí-ajere.
Literal: Ẹni tí a bú lẹ́hìn one-who is-insulted behind-his-back tó gbọ́ and-hears-of-it, a-bẹtí-í-lù-lára-bí-ajere one-whose-body-is-pierced-with-ears-like-a-colander.
Idiomatic: "A person who is insulted in absentia but hears about the insult anyway: his or her entire body is all ears, as a sieve is all holes."
Meaning: Someone who hears everything said about them has informants distributed like the perforations of a strainer.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one cannot be everywhere, one should make sure one has people everywhere"
Notes: Ajere is a perforated vessel used for straining, and the image is grotesque and admiring at once. The epithet is again oríkì-style, and its length in Yorùbá is a single hyphenated word where English needs a clause, which is why Owomoyela renders rather than translates it.
22. Ẹní ṣe ọ̀ràn Ìjẹ̀bú: etí ẹ̀ á gbọ́ ìbọn.
Literal: Ẹní ṣe ọ̀ràn Ìjẹ̀bú whoever makes trouble-with an-Ìjẹ̀bú-person: etí ẹ̀ á gbọ́ ìbọn his ear will hear a-gun.
Idiomatic: "Whoever provokes an Ìjẹ̀bú person, his or her ears will hear gunshot."
Meaning: Provoking that particular party produces an armed answer.
Used when: Owomoyela: "If one incites a bellicose person, one asks for trouble"
Notes: The proverb names a specific Yorùbá subgroup and attributes a reputation to it, which is a reminder that the proverb corpus contains inter-Yorùbá stereotype and that collections reproduce it. The reference to firearms dates the saying to the period after guns entered the region through the coastal trade, which for Ìjẹ̀bú is comparatively early. The ear hears the gun rather than the person seeing it, so the warning arrives in the register of this file.
23. Etí lobìnrín fi ń gbọ́ ohùn Orò.
Literal: Etí the-ear lobìnrín fi ń gbọ́ ohùn Orò is-what a-woman uses to-hear the-voice of-Orò.
Idiomatic: "It is only with the ears that a woman hears the voice of Orò." Owomoyela prints a second recension: "Only with her ears does a woman hear the voice of Orò"
Meaning: Access to the cult is auditory only, because the sight of it is forbidden.
Used when: Owomoyela glosses the first printing "One must not intrude into affairs that do not concern one; undesirable people should be kept in the dark about important or delicate matters," and the second "The sight of Orò is forbidden to a certain class of people"
Notes: Orò is a cult associated with the ancestral dead whose instrument, the bullroarer, produces the voice referred to; women are barred from seeing its rites, and during Orò observances they remain indoors. The proverb reports an actual ritual prohibition and is then used for any matter from which someone is excluded. Owomoyela's two glosses show the collection recording the literal sense in one place and the extended sense in the other, which is the clearest illustration in this file of how a proverb travels from its institution to general speech. The corpus does not describe what is initiate-held in Orò practice, because that material is not public.
24. Orí etí adẹ́tẹ̀ o fi san okòó; kò ní pọn tó ni, tàbí kò rẹ̀dẹ̀dẹ̀ tọ́?
Literal: Orí etí adẹ́tẹ̀ the-ear-tips of-the-leper o fi san okòó you value at twenty-cowries; kò ní pọn tó ni are-they not red enough, tàbí kò rẹ̀dẹ̀dẹ̀ tọ́ or not thick enough?
Idiomatic: "You see a leper's ears and you value them at 20 cowries; do they lack sufficient thickness or are they not red enough?"
Meaning: A price has been put on something by the wrong measure entirely.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of someone who applies the wrong value to things"
Notes: The proverb's sarcasm depends on the fact that thickened, reddened ears are a visible sign of leprosy, so the qualities the speaker pretends to be appraising are the marks of the disease. Assessing them as though they were desirable features of a commodity is the absurdity, and the twenty-cowry figure is small enough to add insult.
The mouth that eats
25. Ẹnu èèyàn lẹbọ.
Literal: Ẹnu èèyàn people's mouth lẹbọ is-the-sacrifice.
Idiomatic: "The mouth of people is the sacrifice."
Meaning: What people say about a matter is what determines it, so their mouths are what must be propitiated.
Used when: The compiler's reading: cited when someone is warned that public talk, not the facts, will decide an outcome. Confidence on the usage: medium.
Notes: Ẹbọ is a sacrifice offered on the instruction of Ifá, and the proverb assigns that status to human speech, which makes it a strong claim about the power of collective talk. This text also appears at entry 48 of owe-speech-silence-tongue, where it is read from the speech side; it is noted here because the mouth is its subject and the two readings differ in emphasis rather than in substance.
26. Ó dé orí aká, hìn àkàrà á de egungun.
Literal: Ó dé orí aká it-arrives at-the-toothless-one, àkàrà á de egungun bean-fritters become bones.
Idiomatic: "In the mouth of a toothless person, bean fritters become like bones."
Meaning: To someone without the capacity, the easiest thing is hard.
Used when: Owomoyela: "To the shiftless person even the easiest task is onerous"
Notes: Àkàrà, fried bean fritters, is the standard Yorùbá example of soft food, which is why the comparison to bone is absurd. Owomoyela's gloss makes the toothless man shiftless, which converts a physical incapacity into a moral fault; the Yorùbá says only that he has no teeth, and the harsher reading is his. Confidence on the gloss: medium.
27. O kò ṣá igi lọ́gbẹ́, o ò sọ ògùrọ̀ lọ́fà, o dé dìí ọ̀pẹ o gbẹ́nu sókè o ń retí; ọ̀fẹ́ ni ń ro?
Literal: O kò ṣá igi lọ́gbẹ́ you did-not slash the-tree with-a-cutlass, o ò sọ ògùrọ̀ lọ́fà you did-not shoot the-palm with-an-arrow, o dé dìí ọ̀pẹ you arrive at-the-foot of-the-palm o gbẹ́nu sókè you raise your-mouth upward o ń retí you are-waiting; ọ̀fẹ́ ni ń ro does-it drip free?
Idiomatic: "You did not slash the trunk with a cutlass; you did not shoot an arrow at the top of the palm-wine-producing palm tree; you come to the foot of the palm tree and raise your open mouth. Does it drip all by itself?"
Meaning: The yield follows the work, and an open mouth is not work.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Said of people who expect to reap where they have not sown"
Notes: Palm wine is obtained by tapping, which requires cutting the tree and fixing a vessel, so the proverb lists the omitted steps before showing the man waiting under the tree with his mouth open. The picture is comic and the reproach is delivered as a question, which is the standard Yorùbá form for a rebuke the hearer is expected to complete themselves.
28. Oore tí a ṣe fádìẹ ò gbé; bó pẹ́ títí a ṣomi toóro sí ni lẹ́nu.
Literal: Oore tí a ṣe fádìẹ the-favour we do for-a-chicken ò gbé is-not wasted; bó pẹ́ títí however long it-takes a ṣomi toóro sí ni lẹ́nu it-will-make thin-broth into one's mouth.
Idiomatic: "The favor that one does a chicken is not for nought; in due course it will make stew to delight one's mouth."
Meaning: Care given to a dependant returns to the giver eventually.
Used when: Owomoyela: "There will always be a return for whatever favor one does for others"
Notes: The return is that the chicken is eventually eaten, which makes this a considerably cooler proverb about generosity than its gloss suggests: the favour is feeding an animal you intend to consume. Yorùbá proverbs about reciprocity are frequently this unsentimental, and the mouth appears here as the destination that justifies the outlay.
29. Ẹni tó torí òtútù fi ọmọ orí odó dáná ò gbọdọ̀ retí à-ti-jẹ-yán.
Literal: Ẹni tó torí òtútù one-who because-of cold fi ọmọ orí odó dáná uses the-pestle to-make-fire ò gbọdọ̀ retí à-ti-jẹ-yán must-not expect the-eating-of-pounded-yam.
Idiomatic: "Whoever because of cold weather uses the pestle as kindling to warm himself or herself must not expect to eat pounded yams."
Meaning: Consuming the tool for present comfort forfeits what the tool produces.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should not jeopardize one's long-term interests by indulging in immediate gratifications"
Notes: Pounded yam requires a mortar and pestle and there is no substitute, so burning the pestle is not merely wasteful but self-cancelling. Ọmọ orí odó, the child of the mortar, is the ordinary name for the pestle, and the Yorùbá habit of naming tools as offspring of the vessels they serve is worth noting alongside entry 2's child-of-the-ear.
30. Ajá kì í kọ "Wá gbà; wá gbà."
Literal: Ajá kì í kọ a-dog does-not refuse "Wá gbà; wá gbà" "come take; come take."
Idiomatic: "A dog does not turn a deaf ear to 'Come take; come take.'"
Meaning: Nobody declines an offer of something for nothing.
Used when: Owomoyela: "One should never reject generosity"
Notes: Owomoyela's English introduces the deaf ear, which is his idiom rather than the Yorùbá; kọ is simply to refuse. The proverb sits at the junction of this file's two halves, since the call arrives at the ear and the benefit arrives at the mouth, and the dog is the animal in which the distance between the two is shortest.
31. Olówó ń sọ̀rọ̀ ẹnu ẹ̀ ń dùn; òtòṣì ń sọ̀rọ̀ ẹnu ẹ̀ ń ró ṣáka-ṣàka.
Literal: Olówó ń sọ̀rọ̀ the-rich-one speaks ẹnu ẹ̀ ń dùn his mouth is-sweet; òtòṣì ń sọ̀rọ̀ the-poor-one speaks ẹnu ẹ̀ ń ró ṣáka-ṣàka his mouth rattles harshly.
Idiomatic: "The rich person speaks, and his mouth sounds sweet; the lazy person speaks, and his mouth sounds like unbearable noise."
Meaning: The same words are received differently according to the standing of the speaker.
Used when: Owomoyela: "The sound of a rich man's voice is music to the ears; that of a poor person is merely grating noise"
Notes: Owomoyela's translation renders òtòṣì, the poor person, as "the lazy person," which imports a judgement the Yorùbá does not make; the word means destitute, not idle. The proverb is a piece of social observation rather than a moral, and reading it as a complaint about the poor reverses its point, which is that hearers are biased. Ṣáka-ṣàka is an ideophone for a dry rattling sound. Confidence on Owomoyela's rendering of òtòṣì: contested.
32. Já ewé ọ̀pọ̀tọ́ kí orí jà eèrùn; já wé bọ ẹnu kó orí jà odi.
Literal: Já ewé ọ̀pọ̀tọ́ pluck a-fig leaf kí orí jà eèrùn and-let the-head fight soldier-ants; já wé bọ ẹnu pluck a-leaf put-it-in the-mouth kó orí jà odi and-let the-head fight the-deaf.
Idiomatic: "Pluck a fig leaf and be attacked by soldier ants; put a leaf in your mouth and be attacked by the deaf."
Meaning: Each small unnecessary act draws its own disproportionate trouble.
Used when: Owomoyela: "Whoever takes unnecessary risks will very likely face dangerous consequences"
Notes: Fig trees host biting ants, which makes the first clause literal. The second is obscure and Owomoyela does not explain it; odi is the deaf, and why a leaf in the mouth should provoke them is not recoverable from the text. The entry is included because the text and translation are securely attested, with the obscurity marked rather than filled in. Confidence on the second clause: contested.
Reading this set
Three observations across these thirty-two proverbs.
The ear is a social organ before it is a sensory one. Entries 20 and 21 measure a man's ears by how many people report to him, and entry 5 makes double hearing a property of the kingship rather than of the king. Where English treats hearing as something that happens to an individual, these proverbs treat it as a network property, which is consistent with the Yorùbá reckoning of wealth in people.
Deliberate deafness is both the vice and the virtue of the set. Entries 9 through 13 use the deaf man as the standing figure for someone who will not be told, and entries 16 through 18 then recommend blocking the ear as a discipline necessary for peace of mind. The corpus does not resolve this. It supplies a proverb for reproaching the person who will not listen and another for the person who listens to too much, and the speaker selects.
The mouth in this file is a destination, not a source. Once the speech proverbs are set aside into owe-speech-silence-tongue, what remains is a mouth that eats, waits, is fed correction, and receives the yield of work done or not done. Entry 2 makes this explicit by feeding words to the ear as food, and entry 27 makes it comic by showing a man holding his mouth open under a tree he never tapped. The division is a fact about how the corpus distributes its material, and it is visible only once the two files are read side by side.