Proverb #453

“Onye ji mmadụ n'ala ji onwe ya.”

It's funny but you see this quite a bit with life. In picturesque fashion - you are engaged to death with a thing - you hold it, contemplate it, turn it about in the mind, grapple with it, are consumed by it.

The image comes to us from wrestling and fights but the lesson the proverb teaches is of universal application.

It  means literally 'To hold a person down is to hold yourself down' ...

Therefore lighten your ship, have done with jealousy or the ought and apply yourself to other things. The sooner, the generally the better.

Contributed By Obioma Ofoegbu, Igboukwu, Anambara State..

for iFaT at ifont@groups.facebook.com

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© ifont 2011, as it appears here.

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