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Laz Proverbs

Laz proverbs, known in Lazuri as didi notkvamepe, carry the practical wisdom of a people living between steep mountains and the sea. They are terse, often blunt, and rooted in the everyday work of the valleys: herding, fishing, tilling a patch of ground, dealing with neighbours. Most were never written down, and they survive because they were repeated.

The Lazuri text is given first, exactly as it is said, followed by its sense. Where a proverb carries a meaning beyond the literal image, that reading follows the translation.

The proverbs

Mundi var gağvaraşa çxombi var ịçopen.
You will not catch the fish without getting yourself wet. Nothing is achieved without going into the work itself.
ŤuŤucik ŤuŤuci eliğams.
Nettle springs from nettle.
Avlaşi xoci ṕanda xociǧa.
The ox in your own yard always looks like a young bullock. Said of failing to see the worth of what you already have.
Bere var ibgaraşa buži var meluduman.
A child that does not cry is not given the breast.
Nana do baba bere şeni, bere ti muşi şeni.
Mother and father live for the child; the child lives for itself.
Bergi mṙǧadu dişkaşi bergite dixfen.
The hoe-maker is buried with a wooden hoe. The tailor does not mend his own tear.
Ar bigate mtel puci var içven.
Not every cow is herded with the same stick. Each person has to be answered in the manner they understand.
Boçis arka-muşi endoli var ayen.
A ram is never hindered by its own horns.
Bozo doxuneri, ncumu dobğeri.
A daughter long kept at her father’s house, and salt spilled on the ground. Two things whose moment has passed.
Babaşi ǧulis doxunute var cidaşǧen.
No one is uncomfortable sitting on the stool their father left them.
Coğorik ili ipxors ili žgums.
A dog eats bone and passes bone. What goes in is what comes out.
Coğori olalu şeni ren, biga ovalu şeni ren.
A dog is there to bark, a stick is there to be raised. There will always be idle talk; take the measure that keeps it from troubling you.
Cuma ǧai rŤuǧo, Ğormotis uonŤasŤun.
If brothers were a good thing, God would have had one too.
Cundinis çxindi va ọçirs.
You do not need a nose in order to kiss.
Çkinerişi dulya çkineriz açkinen.
Only a know-all can make sense of another know-all’s business.
Çoxa va ẹçopaşa xai mo izumom.
Do not measure yourself for the cloth before you have bought it. Do not roll up your trousers before you have seen the stream.
Acaralik dağiǧele iṫǧen, Lazik mzoğaǧele.
The Adjarian looks towards the mountains, the Laz towards the sea.
Ar ǧazuğiten ğoberi var ixvenen.
One stake does not make a fence.
Başkaşi bergiten qona var ixaçken.
You cannot dig your field with somebody else’s hoe.
Başkaşi neǧnas na-noǧanǧa, skani neǧnasti noǧanǧepan.
Knock at another man’s door and they will come knocking at yours.

Reading them

Several of these turn on animals and tools rather than abstractions, which is what makes them portable: a hoe, a stake, a ram, a dog. Others are sharper than their English wording suggests, and a few would once have been said with a laugh. They belong to a spoken register of Lazuri that is thinning as the number of fluent speakers falls, which is reason enough to write them down.

For individual words and their meanings, see the glossary of Laz terms.