Mom's Cuban Proverbs and More Revisited

Mom's Proverbs:


Eramos pocos y pario la mula.
(There weren't enough of us already, and the mule gave birth.)

Casamiento y mortaja del cielo baja.
(Marriage and mortality fall from heaven.)

Comen harina y erutan pollo.
(They eat grits and burp chicken.)

Sarna con gana no pica y si pica no mortifica.
(A rash when desired doesn't itch: and if itches doesn't mortify.)

Hasta la ciruela pasa.
(Even the prune passes. Works on a double pun, because pasa also means dried fruit.)

Si la cosa no tiene remedio porque te preocupas, y si tiene remedio porque te preocupas?
(If the situation cannot be remedied why do you worry; and if it can, why do you worry?)

No llores como mujer lo que no supiste defender como hombre.
(Don't cry like a woman what you didn't know how to defend like a man.)

En el reino de los ciegos, el tuerto es rey.
(In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.)

Mono vestido de seda, mono sigue.
(A monkey dressed in silk is still a monkey.)

Ningun mono se ve su rabo.
(No monkey sees his own tail.)

No hay mal que dure cien años, ni cuerpo que lo resista.
(There is no ill that lasts a hundred years, nor body that will survive.)

No hay mal que por bien no viene.
(There is no ill that doesn't result in good.)

Un (deleted) hala mas que una yunta de buey.
(A part of the female anatomy has more pull than a team of oxen.)


Dios le da barba al que no tiene quijada.
(God gives beards to the chinless.)

Algunos nacen bajo una estrella; otrs estrellado
(Some are born under a star; others smacked by the stars.)

Dad's Proverbs:

Mejor cabeza de raton que culo de leon.
(It's better to be the mouse's head than the lion's ass.)

Cuando estas montado en el burro tiene que seguir para alante.
(When you're on the donkey, you have to ride it.)

Perro que ladra no muerde.
(A barking dog doesn't bite.)

Contributions from Readers:

El diablo sabe más por ser viejo que por diablo.
(The devil knows more because of being old than from being the devil.)
                                                                                               from Michelle Velez

Bicho malo nunca muere.
(Bad people live forever.)
                                        from an anonymous contributor


Jose Reyes has a bunch of Cubanisms at Cubanology here. If you have more out there, leave them in the comments. They don't have to be Cuban. My next proverb post will be a tad more catholic.