Category Archives: Folk speech

One Bright Day

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Gilbert, AZ
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English

The interview will be depicted by initials. The Interviewer is QB and the interview is AS.

QB: So what are these things your dad used to tell you?

AS: Well there was one story that he told me, that he had learned from his father so its been passed down along the family.

QB: Alright go ahead.

AS: One bright day in the middle of the night two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other. Drew their swords and shot each other! A deaf policeman heard the noise, got up and shot the two dead boys. If you don’t believe my story is true ask the blind man he saw it too.

Analysis: Its nice to see that this story has been passed around generation to generation. Also the stories ironies are more intended for that of a younger age as the student, and their father, both learned these stories while they were very young. The saying follows many songs that children would sing, but this story is more about death and is spoken.

 

Uyghur Proverb

Nationality: Arab American
Age: 22
Occupation: Law student
Residence: Silver Spring, MD
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic, Turkish

خېرىداردا كۆز بولسا، قاسساپ ئاچتىن ئۆلەر

Translation: If the customer had eyes, then the butchers would die from hunger. (i.e., if customers found out about how a business practices entirely, then the customers would stop buying and instead make the items themselves or demand the business to change, since not all businesses are honest or efficient).

Background information: “I heard this proverb while walking through Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Province. It introduced me to the shrewd business and customer relationships that the Uyghurs treasure. I found a lot of treasures in Urumqi, a city that far too many people don’t know about. It is larger than Chicago.”

Context: The informant told me this proverb in a conversation about folklore.

Thoughts:  To me, this is an interesting proverb, and one that holds a viewpoint that is definitely held by a large amount of people. In this capitalistic society, we have corporations mass-producing items in ways that are not ethical, or even in ways we do not know – this creates mistrust toward these producers in the consumers. These corporations also want you to think you are a part of the family, even though you will never be; they do not care about you like they suggest, and want your money, a dishonesty a lot of people realize.

Syrian Proverb

Nationality: Arab
Age: 60
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Dubai, UAE
Performance Date: April 21, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

Arabic Proverb

Nationality: Arab
Age: 60
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Dubai, UAE
Performance Date: April 21, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

اكبر منك بيوم ، اعرف منك بسنة

Transliteration: Akbar minak beyoum, a’araf minak bseneh.

Translation: Older than you by one day, more knowledgeable than you by a year.

Background information: This is a well-known Arabic proverb. The informant heard it from other Arabs, and he likes it because it gives a nod to experience and sums up how valuable it is.

Context: The informant told me about this proverb in a conversation about folklore.

Thoughts: This is the quintessential proverb; it gives a general truth/a piece of advice. Someone has lived a year longer than you, and that year is filled with new knowledge, so it is only natural that they would know a year’s worth of information more than you. It’s a succinctly stated proverb about life experience, and is very applicable.

Syrian Proverb

Nationality: Arab
Age: 60
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Dubai, UAE
Performance Date: April 21, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic

اتدخل بجنازة و لا تدخل بجوازة

Transliteration: Atdkhal bejnazeh wa la tadakhal bejwazeh.

Translation: Better to be involved in arranging a funeral, than arranging a marriage.

Background information: Well-known Syrian proverb.

Context: The informant told me about this proverb in a Skype video call conversation about folklore.

Thoughts: The idea here is that, when one arranges a marriage and it goes south, they are typically blamed for the couple’s woes, since it all started with the person arranging them to be together. The future of a marriage is not concrete – there is still room for it to go south and for the arranger to be blamed. The future of a funeral, however, is more concrete – there is no future. The person is dead, and you know they are dead, so there is no further business to be done and nothing to be blamed for. This is an interesting way to see both situations.