proverbs and idioms are a whole genre of entertainment on their own.
Sometimes they’re wise, sometimes they’re confusing, and sometimes, they sound like something someone made up on the spot just to win an argument.
1. “Hearing from the Horse’s mouth”
First and foremost, why would I want to hear anything from the mouth of an animal!
Wetin concern me concern wetin Horse dey talk!
Yes, we know they’re not meant to be translated literally, but come to think of it, this particular one get as e be, honestly.
The only thing the poor horse wants to do is just ride and neigh all day long.
2. “The fowl does not forget who plucked its feathers during harmattan.”
Translation: People don’t forget who wronged them, especially when they were down bad.
Even though we clearly understand what it means, i still have something to say.
If I’m plucking a fowl’s feather, the next thing is to throw inside the pot of stew na.
How then does the fowl want to remember that I plucked its feather during harmattan?
Even the fowl sef suppose understand sey hunger dey! Any stray fowl we catch is entering the pot straight!
I need to have a one-on-one with the elder that came up with this proverb.
3. “Even the goat sweats, but its fur hides it.”
The Reality of this is Deep, but who exactly was checking goats for sweat? Who started this investigation?
So someone went straight to the goats and started to check if they sweat?
Sometimes. when you hear these proverbs, you just stop and ask yourself if you actually heard right.
4. “When the cock crows, the village wakes.”
In this age and time, even our alarms don’t wake us up.
The alarm rings till it’s tired and eventually stops.
We sleep through alarms, not to talk of a cock crow!
This generation no wan hear say anything disturb their beauty sleep.
5. “What an elder sees sitting down, a child cannot see even if they climb an iroko tree.”
Well, respectfully, we the youth would like to respond: “Oga, we don see am. In fact, we don see pass am.”
Because in this Nigeria? We’ve seen shege in 4K. No microscope needed, no iroko tree required, just open your eyes and check fuel price.
We’re not even young again. We’re 23 with the back pain of a 56-year-old, and the stress level of someone who’s fought in three wars.
So, when elders say, “You children don’t know anything yet,” we just smile, because deep down, we know we’ve seen enough to write our own proverbs.
6. “The bird that wakes up early will find the worm.”
Translation: Early risers get the best opportunities.
We’ve been waking up early since NYSC camp, and the only worm we’ve found is network wahala and traffic.
People going from the Mainland to Lagos Island can testify to waking early, hoping to catch the worms, but still they get slammed with 5 hours traffic on third mainland bridge, sweaty clothes before they get to work, and 5 rounds of insults from one bus conductor.
omo this life no balance.
The elder that wrote this one needs to come and remodify it abeg, everything has changed.
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