Author Archives: Bonnie Pakravan

Proverb – Persian

Nationality: Iranian-American
Age: 53
Occupation: Executive
Residence: Calabasas, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Farsi

reezeh cheh nahbeen felfel

is small how don’t look pepper

Don’t look at how small the pepper is

teezeh cheh behbeen beshkan

is sharp how look break it

Break it and see how sharp it is.

This is a Persian proverb my dad told me.  I had never heard it before; when I asked him where he had heard it from, he said that he could not remember but that it is one of those phrases that everyone (in Iran, at least) knows and says frequently.  This proverb is roughly the Persian equivalent of “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  The proverb basically means that even if a person is small or little, they still may have a lot of power and strength in them.  It is also interpreted to mean that a calm, quiet person may all of a sudden do something unexpected and spontaneous.  This is a very old proverb in Iran and people say it in their everyday lives.

Since it does rhyme, there are no variations of this proverb.  It is a fixed phrase and since it dates back to ancient times everyone has learned this proverb the way it is told now.  Overall, this proverb is said day-to-day in order to warn somebody of judging through appearances.

Proverb – Persian

Nationality: Iranian-American
Age: 53
Occupation: Executive
Residence: Calabasas, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Farsi

vajab sahd cheh vajab yeh cheh gozasht saresh az ahb

hand-width hundred whether hand-width one whether over his head by water

The water is over his head, whether a little or a lot.

My father told me this proverb and he said that, like most Persian proverbs, it is ancient and routes back to hundreds of years.  This is also a well-known proverb that people, in modern times, still continue to say.  The proverb basically means that once you are in trouble and have “dug yourself into a whole”, it does not matter how close or deep you are, you are still in trouble.

When my dad told me this proverb, I had not heard it before.  When my family tells me new proverbs, riddles, or tongue twisters, I always try to memorize them so that I could use them in the future.  This proverb, however, took me a while to memorize.  I have never heard the word “vajab” before and when I asked my dad what it meant, he said that a “vajab” is the distance from the thumb to the pinky finger of a hand.  So the proverb literally means “The water is over his head, whether one hand-width or a hundred hand-widths.”

I think this proverb is really interesting.  It is fairly accurate to say that once someone is in trouble, he is in trouble.  It does not matter if he is in a little bit of trouble or a lot of trouble.  It would take the same amount of effort to get out the trouble.  Like in the proverb, if a person is drowning under one “hand-width” of water, it is the same as drowning under a hundred “hand-widths” of water because he is still drowning.

Even though I have never heard this proverb before, my dad says that it is well known in Iran.  He said that everybody says it, in context, when they want to describe a situation of making amends and getting out of trouble.

Contemporary Legend

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tustin, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“So there’s this urban legend.  So a girl was lying in her bead and she hears the faucet leaking.  So she gets up and closes the faucet.  She gets back in bed, but it keeps happening and she keeps getting up to shut it off.  Every time she gets back in bed, she puts her hand down towards the floor so that her dog can lick just to reassure her.  In the morning, she gets up and goes to the bathroom and she sees on the mirror “People lick too” written in blood and her dog is hanging from the shower head.”

Angie told me she heard this urban legend first when she was in middle school at a sleepover party.  However, she told me that she has heard this urban legend from different people throughout her life.  She says even though she has heard it from many people, the versions she has heard have not varied that much.

When she told this urban myth to me, her friend was there as well. I asked Angie if the story affected her in any way and what she thought of it and she answered by saying that it has not affected her and she has not really thought of it.  However, her friend noted that she gets scared and worried whenever she hears dripping water.  Angie said that she never realized this and began to think that the urban myth had a factor in that uneasiness.

I have also heard this urban legend before.  I have heard it from about five or six different people and I have never seen any major variations of the tale.  However, I have heard another tale that is similar to this.  In that tale, there are two roommates and in the middle of the night, one gets up to grab some books.  Since her roommate is sleeping, she does not want to turn on the lights.  She accidentally trips on something but moves on, grabs her books, and leaves.  The next morning, she comes back and finds that her roommate is dead and on the mirror, in blood, is written, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?”

It seems that more and more people are sharing legends, like these, and they have even become a part of popular culture.  There was a movie, “Urban Legends”, and it illustrated one urban legend after another.  I have not seen the movie, but I heard that one of these two legends was depicted in the movie.

These stories are legends because they could be true and real.  They occur in the real world and questions people’s beliefs.  Some may believe in these legends while others may automatically disregard them.  Nonetheless, these legends “invite discussions about belief.”

Also seen in:  Brunvand, Jan Harold, Robert Loran Fleming, and Robert F. Boyd.  The Big Book of Urban Legends. New York: Paradox Press, 1994.

Proverb

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tustin, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

Angie told me that her mother would always say this to her whenever she wanted her to go to bed.  The hopes of being “healthy, wealthy, and wise” would make going to bed appealing to Angie.  She told me that, since she basically grew up with this proverb, she is used to it and sometimes says it to herself.  When I heard it, I had not heard it before; I thought it was a clever proverb.  Like other proverbs, this one teaches a lesson and moral to its audience and gives a piece of advice.

I think that adding a rhyme to the proverb makes it more adaptable and suitable to say to younger children.  Children are always learning new rhymes and riddles, whether through other kids, at school, or from their parents.  I feel that children are more able to learn something if it has a rhyme to it.  And so, I believe this proverb is very effective.  It encourages children to sleep early so that they can succeed in the future.  The children, in turn, hear this proverb and they remember it.  For example, Angie first heard this when she was a little girl and now she is twenty and still remembers the proverb.

Also seen in:  Kett, Joseph F.  The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.

Folk Remedy

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tustin, CA
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“White wine takes out red wine stains.”

Angie told me that she learned this while at a dinner party with family friends.  Her parents’ friend mentioned that white wine would take out red wine stains, to an extent however.  At first, she did not think it would work, but her friends reassured her and claimed that it would.  Angie has not tried it yet, but she says she believes now that it may be true.  When I heard about this remedy, I thought it was pretty interesting.  Up until that point, I had thought that once you spill red wine, there is no way to get the stain out.  But when I heard that white wine would actually help, I was amused, especially since you are basically fighting wine with wine.

I could not find anywhere where it is published that white wine can take out red wine stains.  To me, this seems like a recent finding.  I remember when people would say that nothing can get out red wine stains.  But after doing some research on the Internet, people have all sorts of tricks to get stains out, such as white wine and even cold water with salt.

I feel that this falls into folklore.  It is not folk medicine, but it could fall into a category of “folk remedy.”  Everything is passed on verbally between groups of people with a common interest, or problem, being stains from red wine spills.  I have not heard of this solution before so I would guess that it is fairly new.  Angie told me she heard it about three or four months ago.  However, I believe that this solution will gain popularity and become well known.