Category Archives: Proverbs

 “Lluvia antes de las tres, buena tarde es.”

TEXT: “Lluvia antes de las tres, buena tarde es.”

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Male, 58 years old, Mexican.

CONTEXT: This phrase was said in and is only applicable to Mexico City when it would be raining in the morning. He learned it from his mother who learned it from her mother. Said in the morning with knowledge that the rain would clear by the afternoon, which in Mexico was after lunch so by 2:30pm or 3:00pm.

ANALYSIS: Mexico City is the center of Mexico. It is like if you combined Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C. all in one city. It is where politics, centralized government, and business has happened for many decades. Families have been living there for centuries. The city is a valley surrounded by mountains, the valley itself is already at a very high elevation, it is the coolest weather within a very tropical country. Therefore it has its own ecosystem/weather. These inhabitants have seen this pattern, that if it rains in the morning it will be lovely afternoon for hundreds of years, making this proverb very reliable and common. The informant grew up with it and it still applies. He would plan his day on it, if it rained in the morning he would make afternoon plans to be outdoors.

ORIGINAL SCRIPT: “Lluvia antes de las tres, buena tarde es.”

TRANSLITERATION: “Yoo-vee-ah ahn-teh-ss -deh-lah-ss treh-ss boo-eh-nah tah-rr-deh eh-ss.”

TRANSLATION: “Rain before three, good afternoon it is.”

THOUGHTS: I think it is really fascinating to be in a place with a climate that follows a pattern so closely. Sort of like a rainbow after the rain but you know it will always happen no matter what. I’ve spent time in Mexico City but never noticed this and am excited to go back and hopefully see for myself if it is true.

Chinese proverbs

Nationality: Chinese/American
Age: 55
Occupation: Research Scientist
Performance Date: 4/29/2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Background: The informant is my father, a Chinese immigrant who lived in Beijing until he was 22. Since then, he has lived and worked in the US.

恭喜发财 (Gōngxǐ fācái) – Wishing you wealth and prosperity

Informant: Chinese people love money. Gong xi fa cai means…good luck, get rich. Every year at Chinese New Years they always give presents to..or just…pay homage to the god of money. 

Me: Who is the god of money?

Informant: He’s called…”Cáishén yé” (财神爷) – “cai” as in wealth, “shen” as in god, “ye” as in grandpa, or like old man. So, god of money. It’s a little funny, how everyone greets each other with this “gōngxǐ fācái” at New Years.

万般皆下品，惟有读书高 (Wànbān jiē xiàpǐn, wéiyǒu dúshū gāo) – Everything else is inferior compared to reading

Informant: We wanted you to study hard…Chinese people really value education. This means that all other things are less important than studying, or going to university. 

Me: Did your parents tell that to you growing up

Informant: Yes. My dad would always tell me that if i studied, I could have money, and if i had money, i could find a beautiful wife.

吃得苦中苦 方为人上人 (Chī dé kǔ zhōng kǔ fāng wéirén shàng rén) – Working hard allows one to be ahead of everyone else

Informant: If you want to be better than other people, you have to suffer more than them as well. Chinese people value hard work. And they’re very competitive. They want to be….better than everyone. It’s similar to the English saying “no pain no gain”.

Me: Why are they so competitive? 

Informant: Um…That’s just in their nature. They really compare themselves others. They really value hard work. They want to be better than everybody, they want to be richer than everybody.

Informant: Basically Chinese people really value education, hard work, and want to be on top – in wealth, and…just….want to be higher in their social status. They really admire people who have high positions in government. I think Chinese people are a little…vain. They value wealth and fame, they love celebrities too. Now I see some of these things as funny, like how Chinese people love money so much that they made so many sayings, but when i lived in China I didn’t necessarily find it funny. They were just what I grew up with.

Context: These were told to me over a recorded phone call. Some parts have been translated from mandarin. I have transcribed here excerpts from the recording.

Analysis:

塞翁失马，焉知非福 – Sai Weng lost his horse, how can I know it is not a blessing

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 49
Occupation: Software Engineer
Performance Date: 4/29/2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Background: The informant is a Chinese immigrant who immigrated to the US in adulthood. She grew up on a small island off the coast of China.

Informant: “The old man in the story is named Sai Weng…”sai” means far away, far from the city, and “weng” means sort of..just old man. Sai Weng raised horses in the countryside. He had a great horse to help till his fields, but one day it ran away. His neighbor said to him, you must have spent so much money on this wonderful horse, you must be very upset. But the farmer was not sad, he said, “Who knows whether this is a good or bad thing?

But one night the horse returned and brought many female horses with him, who would now all belong to the farmer. Everyone congratulated the farmer, but he still said, “We don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

Sai Weng had a son who loved to ride horses, and he wanted to tame the wild horses. One day while trying to ride a wild horse he broke his leg. His neighbors offered their condolences to him, they said “Oh no, what a young healthy man but his leg is broken now. What a loss, I am very sorry.” The old man stayed quiet, and the neighbors asked why. “Good thing or bad thing, it’s hard to say,” the old man finally said. The neighbors did not understand him at all. His son was crippled, and he’s not even sad! One day, a war broke out in China. All the young men in the village were sent to the war, but when they came to Sai Weng’s house, they saw his son had a broken leg and did not make him go to war. That war was terrible…most of the young men who had been sent to fight died, and Sai Weng’s son was one of the only young men left in the village. Then, the neighbors perhaps understood.

Basically when bad things happen, you always stay positive.

This is… sort of…old people talk. An old man’s wisdom. The core main idea is that you must stay positive, even in the face of unlucky circumstances.

When good things happen, he remains cautious. He is prepared for the bad things. He stays strong. When anything bad happens, he won’t be devastated: he always stays positive. When good things happen, don’t be overly excited. The American saying “There’s no free lunch” is similar I believe…when something good happens you should still be weary. It’s the Chinese people’s philosophy, don’t be too happy but don’t be too sad. When good things happen stay cautious, and when bad things happen stay positive”

Me: “Where did you first hear this story?”

Informant: “I think I heard this story in my textbooks when I was in school, or maybe my dad told it to me.”

Context: This was told to me over a recorded phone call. The text is mostly translated from mandarin, though certain sentences and words were told to me in English.

“Dios Aprieta pero no ahorca”- Mexican Proverb

Literal translation: “God squeezes, but he doesn’t suffocate”

Context: The informant, VA, is a first generation student at USC. She has one sibling and her family is from Puebla, Mexico. She hears this proverb whenever her family has financial problems or health problems. In the past year, both her mother and father have had serious health issues. Her father suffers from heart disease and was operated on. The year before that, her mother had a stroke. She states that she is not religious but her parents are. Her father believes in God a lot and they are Catholic. They believe in saints including Saint Judas and La Virgen de Guadalupe (The Virgin Mary). Both of her parents say they learned the proverb from their parents because their families are very religious, except for her. Finally, she explains how hearing this proverb from someone that’s close to her gives her relief and helps her believe that her situation will become better. 

Description (From Transcript): 

“So what this proverb I always heard was “Dios aprieta, pero no ahorca”. The translation is “God squeezes but he doesn’t suffocate”. But it literally means, (it’s more on the religious side), but it means that God is testing you, but that doesn’t mean he’s gonna let you suffer. He’s not gonna let you die. And we used to say that when we were having financial problems: paying the rent or trying to pay hospital bills. Or finding ways to have hope that my dad was going to get out of that surgery well, or have hope that my mom was gonna get well out of the hospital for a week. He [my dad] was like “Dios aprieta, pero no ahorca. she’s gonna be fine”, and that kind of gave me a little hope. It’s a way of coping and having hope and making the best out of the situation.  We were like “everything happens for a reason”. It puts you at a state of rest, a little bit, because you have so much to worry about but everything is going to be okay

My interpretation: If God only squeezes someone’s neck or body, they might be uncomfortable and in pain, (a metaphor for being tested), however he won’t actually suffocate them because his tests only go so far. To me, this means that a person must have faith in God’s mercy or trust the plan he has for them. The informant’s parents told her this, revealing how faith is present as a form of intergenerational comfort. It also reveals how faith is often used as a final mode of hope when a situation (such as poor health or financial instability) is out of a person’s control. 

“Perro que ladra no muerde”

Informant: My informant is a current sophomore at the University of Southern California. Her parents are from Jalisco, Mexico. However, she grew up in Denver, Colorado. 

Main Piece: “Perro que ladra no muerde” 

Transliteration: “Dog that barks don’t bite” 

Translation: “Dog that barks doesn’t bite” 

Context: My informant stated that this proverb is usually present when someone is being threatening, but you know that they will not do anything. My informant proceeded to give an example of her own explaining the following: For example, if somebody told me, oh, I’m in denial, I’m finally going to buy my car or something, and it’s like someone who doesn’t have the funds to buy a car or something, then this proverb would apply to them. She stated that this proverb is used to like the question “But are you actually going to do it? Probably not. She heard it from my parents and other members of my family. And now, it has been said so many times by her family, that she also began saying it. She started seeing it sort of as a joke not even just to say it literally, but just because it was like something that she heard with the older people in my family. She felt like at first it was just sort of like an “Oh, let me try to fit in with the in my culture.”

Analysis: I think it’s interesting how in so many cultures, we don’t say what we think upfront, but rather we look for sneaky ways of creating proverbs to talk about people. I for one, am also very familiar with this proverb because it used a lot for the same reason as it was explained for above. This proverb just demonstrates how in Mexican culture we detest individuals who are all talk, but never take action. For example, if you talk too much about supposed accomplishment that you will be doing, yet you don’t accomplish them, in Mexican culture that is embarrassing. All in all, I think this proverb serves its purpose to humble down people.