Proverb Monday

Proverb: Wo ne ɔberεmpɔn na εda a, anka wobε ɔsi apini anadwo
Translation: If you were to sleep with a paramount chief, you would hear that he sighs in the night.
Usage: Even the great have their troubles and anxieties
No. 6570 in Bu me Bε by Peggy Appiah et al.

Comments

  1. Amy13 June 2011 at 10:44

    Another great proverb, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ImageNations13 June 2011 at 10:56

    Thanks Amy... Even the elephant cries...lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. @parridhlantern13 June 2011 at 11:05

    Great proverb, but it doesn't help me knowing the great & good have troubles as well lol.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ImageNations13 June 2011 at 11:11

    @PL I thought it makes us more equal before nature. Doesn't it? lol... whereas the poor think of how to get money, the rich think of how to protect the wealth...lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. Geosi13 June 2011 at 13:15

    And why should they not have? They certainly are not super humans where they do not encounter troubles. I love this proverb.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ImageNations13 June 2011 at 14:11

    Definitely not! lol

    ReplyDelete
  7. Zibilee13 June 2011 at 15:42

    I love this proverb and have actually been thinking about this a lot. Everyone has scars and wounds, it's just that often they keep them hidden.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ImageNations13 June 2011 at 16:03

    Exactly Zibilee. So that those who talk a lot are seen as the ones with the 'biggest' problem. Someone said that if we should ask everybody to bring his/her problem so that we add everything up and divide among ourselves, everybody would be willing to take his/her problem back. Because you look a other people's problem and you think 'I am blessed'.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sarah Norman13 June 2011 at 16:46

    That is so true. I often wonder if really terrible people, like dictators and torturers, sleep well at night. I hope not

    ReplyDelete
  10. ImageNations13 June 2011 at 17:02

    @Sarah, do you think they do? Or do you think they are really happy, deep down their soul? Their rule is like a drug, if it wanes, the realities open up to them. And they don't like to see the real selves. So they continue being wicked. It's like drinking to cover up problems caused by the drinking habit.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lisa Almeda Sumner13 June 2011 at 22:06

    I love your Monday proverbs. Proverbs express so much wisdom in so few words.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ImageNations14 June 2011 at 01:22

    @Lisa Almeda, yes they do. That's why I love them. They also show the rich heritage of a culture. For instance in Twi (my language), a 'Gathering' literally means 'A Proverb Market'. So that when Chiefs and people meet or elders meet, it takes only the wise to understand what's being said. And he who is able to properly use proverbs to argue his point is regarded as being eloquent and wise.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Help Improve the Blog with a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10. Unexpected Joy at Dawn: My Reading

Image
Title: Unexpected Joy At Dawn Author: Alex Agyei-Agyiri Genre: Novel Publisher: Sub-Saharan Publishers Pages: 331 Year: 2004 Country: Ghana Unexpected Joy at Dawn is a story of two siblings, Nii and Mama Orojo, during the 1983 deportation of Ghanaians from Nigeria under the Shehu Shagari government. Nii, who is a Nigerian by blood but a Ghanaian by birth, was left in Ghana by his parents as they made the tortuous journey to Nigeria when Ghana enacted the Aliens Compliance Order of 1969, which made every person living in Ghana without the required papers an alien. His name was changed to reflect the name of his adopted parents. After fourteen years of living in hardship in Ghana, which involves living in slums even though he was an Assistant Manager at a bank, taking on multiple jobs, not being able to bury a wife and being chased around by market women for purported 'fraud', he decided to go to Nigeria in search of his roots. Besides, he entertained the fears of being...
Read more

69. The Clothes of Nakedness by Benjamin Kwakye, A Review

Image
Title: The Clothes of Nakedness Author: Benjamin Kwakye Publishers: Heinemann African Writers Series Genre: Fiction/Novel/Class Pages: 212 Year of First Publication: 1998 Country: Ghana For the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa Region Winners Reading Challenge Benjamin Kwakye 's novel The Clothes of Nakedness  is a compelling narrative directed at a Ghanaian audience, in particular. It reveals the economic hardships existing in our society; it also reveals the intricately woven relationships between the rich and the poor and how the 'seemingly' rich manipulate the poor to further that wealth-dom in this dual economic society where absolute riches exist side by side with abject poverty. The latter scenario is even more stark and pathetic if one knows that Nima and Kanda Estates, two neighbourhoods presented in the story, are real and not just fictional representation made concrete by Kwakye's brilliant mind. The story revolves around thr...
Read more

42. The Blinkards by Kobina Sekyi

Image
Title: The Blinkards, A Comedy and The Anglo-Fanti - A Short Story Author: Kobina Sekyi Genre: Play/Short Story Pages: 256 Publishers: Heinemann/Readwide ISBN: 978-0-435-92784-4 Year of Publication: 1974 (this edition, 1997) Country: Gold Coast (Now Ghana) Setting:  This book contains two stories: The Blinkards - a play and The Anglo-Fanti - a short story . Though the stories are from two different genres, one theme threads through them: the effect of absolute cultural osmosis or better still the consequences of swallowing an alien culture without much scrutiny, as happened in occupied countries popularly referred to by the occupiers as colonies (colonies of what? Ants? Bees?) Both stories took place in Cape Coast and the setting is very significant to the story. Apart from the author being a Fanti from Cape Coast, Cape Coast was the first point of introduction to colonial rule. As a seaport city, it was the first town that was brought under colonial rule; hence ...
Read more