Category Archives: Proverbs

Yiddish Phrase

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: 4/23/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Polish

Informant Description/ Context of performance: My friend’s grandma always used to tell her this proverb while growing up.

Transliteration:

Mit eyn tokhes ken nit tantsn af tsvey khasenes.

Translation: You can’t dance at two weddings with one behind.

Meaning: You can’t do everything at once.

Conclusion: It is rather a simple and direct saying. This Yiddish proverb is seen throughout various cultures. For example, my grandpa used to always say “one thing done well is a very good thing, as anyone can tell.” It encompasses the same idea of taking on the appropriate workload and doing it to the best of one’s ability.

“Kill ’em with Kindness”

Nationality: American
Age: 49
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: Phoenix, Arizona
Performance Date: April 14, 2017
Primary Language: English

I asked my informant if she knew any proverbs and “kill ’em with kindness” came up as she is a mother of two and tells this to her kids when they encounter bullies or rudeness.

Me: What do you mean when you say “kill ’em with kindness” and when do you use it?

CC: When my kids are bullied or encounter mean or rude people and are angry and either want to retaliate or give up, I tell them to kill ’em with kindness. The mean people of the world, just be nice to them, and they can’t bother you, you don’t stoop to their level. It’s always the best way to deal with mean people.

Me: Where did you learn this?

CC: From my own mother I suppose? I grew up Catholic, and this isn’t strictly a Catholic saying, but it goes along with the values of kindness and turning the other cheek. It’s a good way to live by, being kind and not reciprocating rudeness.

Analysis:

This is a proverb coming from a suburban Catholic family, specifically from  a mother. It means as she says to not reciprocate rudeness, but to treat the rude people with kindness instead and the situation will get better and not elevate like it would if rudeness was reciprocated with rudeness. It also goes along with teaching kids not to react and retaliate, but to be kind. It may be a modern, colloquial iteration of some Proverbs from the Bible.

Annotation: This proverb has some similar iterations in Proverbs of King James Bible.

Prov 25:21, 22: If your enemy is hungry, give him food; if 
he is thirsty, give him water.  When you do this, he will feel 
ashamed of hating you and the Lord will reward your compassion.

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.