Thirty Jamaican proverbs, grouped by the job they do

A Jamaican proverb is a compressed argument. It settles a question by handing you a picture — a hawk circling a yard of contented chickens, a bucket that goes to the well once too often — and leaving you to finish the reasoning yourself. The thirty below are grouped by the job they do, because that is how anybody actually reaches for one: not alphabetically, but by the trouble sitting in front of them.

What a proverb is for, and who says it

Proverbs are the part of Jamaican speech that carries the most weight for the fewest words. They are old, spoken far more often than written, and they belong to no author. A grandmother, a shopkeeper and a politician can all use the same line and it lands with the same authority, because the authority comes from the accumulated experience behind it rather than from the speaker.

That is also why the wording moves around. There is no official text of any of these. The version you grew up with may reorder the words, swap one animal for another or stop halfway — and it is not a corrupted form of the one printed here, it is another living one. Where the two differ, take yours as the reference.

Most of these are older than the speech you hear on the radio today, which is why some run deeper than everyday conversation does — a difference explained properly in our guide to how Patois shifts between deeper and lighter speech.

Caution: the ones about danger and trust

These are the warnings. Almost all of them work by putting a small comfortable scene next to something with teeth.

Chicken merry, hawk deh near(chikin meri haak de nier)— chicken happy, hawk is close

is the classic. Word for word it is two images side by side with no connective at all, and that juxtaposition is the argument. It is said to someone celebrating early, and it means the moment you stop watching is the moment something is watching you. Quietly, and to one person — never to spoil a party.

Trouble nuh set like rain— trouble does not arrive like rain

depends on a Jamaican fact: you can watch rain crossing the hills for twenty minutes before it reaches you. Trouble gives no such notice. It answers somebody who assumes they would have seen a problem coming.

Nuh call alligator long mout till yuh cross di river— do not insult the alligator until you have crossed the river

is about timing an insult. You keep your opinion of a person until you no longer need anything from them. Said to someone about to complain about a landlord or an official whose decision has not come through yet.

Play wid puppy, puppy lick yuh mout(plie wid popi popi lik yu mout)— play with the puppy and it will lick your mouth

is the familiarity warning. The literal picture is affectionate, which is the point — nothing went wrong, you invited it. Used when someone is surprised that a person they treated as an equal now behaves like one.

Sorry fi mawga dog, mawga dog tun roun bite yuh— pity the thin dog and the thin dog turns and bites you

is the hardest of the five. Help given to someone desperate is not always repaid, and is sometimes repaid badly. It is usually said afterwards, by someone who has just been bitten.

Self-reliance: starting small and standing up

The second group is the encouraging one, and it is encouraging in a particular way — it never promises that anything will be quick.

One one coco full basket— one coco at a time fills the basket

is one of the most quoted lines in the tradition. A coco is a root vegetable, and the image is a basket filled one at a time. It answers anyone discouraged by how far off a goal is: the basket does fill, and it fills the only way it can.

Every mickle mek a muckle— every small amount makes a large one

does the same work for saving. It is the line said over small money that seems too small to bother keeping. The wording has never quite parsed: mickle and muckle were both English words for a large amount, and the older English form of the proverb is many a little makes a mickle.

Empty bag cyaahn stan up(empti bag kyaahn stan op)— an empty sack cannot stand upright

is the argument for eating before working, and more broadly for not asking anything of a person who has nothing left. Anyone who has tried to stand an empty sack up knows how exact the picture is.

Learn fi dance a yuh yard before yuh go a road— learn to dance at home before you go out

is practice advice, and it is kinder than it sounds. It does not say you dance badly. It says the place to be clumsy is at home, in front of people who love you.

Mi come yah fi drink milk, mi nuh come yah fi count cow(mi kom ya fi jringk milk mi no kom ya fi kount kou)— I came for the milk, not to count the cattle

is the sharpest line here for ending a digression: I am here for the result, not for the history, the excuses or the process. It turns up in shops, in meetings and in arguments about money, and it works because it is funny before it is rude.

Consequence: what you do comes back

This group is the moral engine of the tradition. Every one of them describes a delay between an action and its bill.

Wah sweet nanny goat a go run im belly(wa swiit nani guot a guo ron im beli)— what tastes sweet to the goat will upset its stomach

is the one everybody knows. The goat eats what it likes; the consequence arrives later and privately. It covers spending, drinking, and any pleasure whose cost is deferred rather than cancelled.

Every day bucket go a well, one day di bottom mus drop out— the bucket goes to the well daily, and one day its bottom falls out

is about repetition rather than wickedness. Nothing survives being done indefinitely. It is said to a person who has got away with something several times and mistaken that for safety.

Yuh cyaahn plant corn an expect fi reap peas— you cannot plant corn and expect to harvest peas

is the plainest of the group and needs no unpacking. It is generally aimed at parents, managers and governments — anyone startled by a result that follows exactly from what they put in.

Fire deh a mus-mus tail, im tink a cool breeze— the mouse's tail is on fire and it thinks it feels a cool breeze

is the funniest and the cruellest. Somebody is in serious trouble and has misread the signs entirely as good fortune. It is said about a person, rarely to them.

Di higher monkey climb, di more im expose— the higher the monkey climbs, the more of it is on show

is the proverb about promotion. Rising makes you more visible, not less, and everything you would rather keep private rises with you.

Appearances: what shows and what stays hidden

Where the last group was about time, this one is about surface — the gap between what a thing looks like and what it is.

Dog a sweat but long hair hide it— the dog is sweating, but its coat hides it

is the one to know. A person coping visibly may be struggling invisibly, and the line is used both as sympathy and as a warning against envy.

Rockstone a river bottom nuh know sun hot— the stone at the bottom of the river does not know the sun is hot

makes the same point from the other side. Someone comfortable cannot assess a hardship they have never been in. Said about people who advise from a distance.

Duppy know who fi frighten(dopi nuo huu fi fraitn)— the ghost knows who to frighten

is about bullies. A duppy(dopi)— ghost is a returning spirit, and the observation is that it never troubles the household that would fight back. Said when somebody is picking their targets and pretending it is a coincidence.

New broom sweep clean, but old broom know di corna(nyuu bruum swiip kliin bot uol bruum nuo di kaana)— the new broom sweeps clean, but the old broom knows the corners

is the defence of experience. Enthusiasm is real and it is not the same thing as knowing where the dirt actually collects. It is said around a new hire, a new manager or a new government, usually within earshot.

Not everyting good fi eat good fi talk— not everything good to eat is good to discuss

is the discretion proverb. Something can be entirely true and still not be yours to repeat.

Patience: time, age and waiting

Time longer than rope— time is longer than rope

is short enough to be a whole answer on its own. There is always more time than there is patience, and whatever is being waited out will outlast the waiting. Said to someone demanding an outcome now.

Patient man ride donkey— the patient man gets to ride the donkey

is the promise attached to the previous line. The one who waits is the one who ends up carried. It is quiet encouragement, not a guarantee.

Sickness come on horseback an go weh pon foot— sickness arrives on horseback and leaves on foot

is exact about recovery. Illness arrives in a day and leaves over weeks, and the two speeds do all the work. Said to a person impatient with their own convalescence, and it applies just as well to debt and to grief.

Cow nuh know di use a im tail till fly season come— the cow does not know what its tail is for until fly season

is about undervalued things and undervalued people. You discover what something was for at the moment you need it. Frequently said about a person who has been taken for granted.

Di olda di moon, di brighta it shine— the older the moon, the brighter it shines

is the one proverb here that is straightforwardly about respect for age, and it treats age as accumulation rather than as decline.

Community: obligation, rivalry and fair shares

One han cyaahn clap(wan han kyaahn klap)— one hand cannot clap

is the cooperation proverb and it is used constantly. Nothing that needs two people can be done by one, and a person insisting on doing it alone is not being strong.

Two bull cyaahn rule inna one pen(tuu bul kyaahn ruul ina wan pen)— two bulls cannot rule in one pen

covers every situation with two people who both think they are in charge. It is said in kitchens, in offices and about band members.

When trouble ketch yuh, pickney shirt fit yuh— when trouble catches you, a child's shirt fits you

is about need stripping away pride. In real difficulty you take help you would have refused a month ago, and the line says so without judgement.

Every hoe have im stick a bush— every hoe has its handle somewhere in the bush

is about pairing. Everyone has a match somewhere, including the person nobody expected anyone to choose. It is warm rather than mocking, and it turns up at weddings.

Puss an dog nuh have di same luck— the cat and the dog do not share the same luck

is the fairness observation. Two people doing exactly the same thing will not get the same outcome, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. It is said with resignation, not bitterness.

Where the imagery comes from

The animals are not decoration. Arguing through a talking animal — the clever spider, the greedy goat, the mouse that misreads its own danger — came with the West Africans whose languages shaped Jamaican speech, and it is the tradition that produced Anansi. So, most likely, did a habit of structure: two images placed side by side with no connective between them, leaving the listener to supply the relationship. An English proverb will more often state its rule outright; these more often show two things and trust you to finish the thought.

The vocabulary carries the same history, and more of it than most people expect; we have written separately about the words that came from Twi, Yoruba and Igbo.

The lines themselves came from more than one place, and it is worth being straight about which. Some have close relatives among Akan proverbs. Others came in from British stock: the new-broom line is an old English proverb, the mickle-and-muckle one is British, and the proverb about sickness arriving on horseback was already in English proverb collections by the seventeenth century. What none of them are is English proverbs with the spelling changed. A proverb that crosses into another language gets re-argued, re-timed and re-aimed, and what survives here is what earned a place in Jamaican conversation.

How a proverb is actually deployed

This is the part a list cannot teach. A proverb is rarely used to open a subject. It is used to close one.

The ordinary sequence is: an argument runs for a while, somebody who has been quiet says seven words, and the argument stops. It stops because a proverb changes what is being disagreed about. You can dispute a person's opinion; disputing a proverb means disputing something the whole room recognises, which nobody wants to do over a small matter. That is why these lines are so often delivered by the oldest person present, and so gently.

Two practical notes. The first is delivery: a proverb is said rather than recited, and slower than the talk around it — and many are cut short once everyone knows them, so you hear the opening clause only and complete the rest silently. The second is aim. They are rarely pointed straight at the person concerned; the polite form is to say it about a hypothetical goat, to the room, while looking at nobody.

Reading a proverb without a dictionary

Most of these become transparent once three or four small grammar facts are in place, and those facts are the same ones that separate Patois from English generally, set out in our guide to Patois and English side by side.

The one that unlocks the most is the pronoun. One third-person form does the work English splits between he, she and it, so an animal, an object and a person are referred to the same way — which is why the goat and the mouse read as characters rather than things. Kinship terms are the other place a proverb can lose a reader, and they have their own guide in the words for family.

The second is the missing linking verb where English insists on one: chicken merry has no is in it. Saying where something is works differently — Patois has a verb for that, and the deh in hawk deh near is it — so the two halves of the line are not built the same way. The third is that a bare verb can describe a general truth rather than one past event, which is what lets these lines be about all mice, forever, in five words.