Quotes for Friday from Cyprian Ekwensi's Burning Grass

Not a war. But then, it was a war. When the forest burns do the locusts stop to say goodbye? [35]

I say there has been a war. If a fish comes out of the water and says the crocodile has one eye, who has been there with him? [35]

Night might convert the old devil into a fiend. [36]

'A maiden is one of those things a man must not trust. By Allah, it is!'
'And the others?'
'A Prince, a river, a knife, and darkness. A prince because his word changes with the weather; a river because in the morning you may wade across it, but in the evening it has swollen and can swallow you. A knife, because it knows not who carries it. Darkness, ha! Who knows what lurks in it. Certainly, all evil things.' [37/38]

He who waits will see what is in the grass. [50]

You pay twenty head of cattle for a maiden because you are excited. Then when your head is cool, you begin to say "If I had known!" [74]

On the day of death, there is no medicine. [118]
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Comments

  1. I absolutely live the one about paying many head of cattle for a wife, and then regretting it when your head cools. Very modern!

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  2. Ha ha ha! Too true, on the day of death, no medicine can keep death away and no amount or power of medicine will keep you alive

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  3. He who waits will see what is in the grass. So simple yet so insightful.

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  4. I like the one about the fish and the crocodile. It is just resoundingly true.

    http://criticalliteraturereview.blogspot.com/2012/02/imagine-this-by-sade-adeniran.html

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  5. sounds like someone has some woman issues! LOL

    ReplyDelete

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