PROVERBS “The spoken monument of common sense”

The proverb is a reflection on life and destiny. Ever since ancient tires, proverbs have attracted the interest of philosophers and scholars; Aristotle himself said that they were the guardians of philosophy. Sicily, with its countless collections of proverbs, ranging from those of the end of the 15th and 16th centuries to the more recent ones of the 19th century by the humanist- doctor, Giuseppe Pitrè, who collected more than thirteen thousand, could be considered the cradle of proverbs, but in actual fact popular sayings have no homeland; indeed, one of their main characteristics is that they adapt to social, territorial, historic and linguistic circumstances and effectively exist in every country and in every language. Proverbs can be said to have always existed and literature all over the world

has always referred to them. Proverbs express the truth in a way that is easy to remember. There is a science, “paremiology”, which studies proverbs and they represent, together with popular songs, legends and myths, all the cultural wealth of a people. In the past, when illiteracy was widespread and electronics did not yet exist, proverbs had a fundamental importance in the education of children, being used to transmit to them the most important social values. Proverbs can be said to still be topical, in that they give more efficacy to speech and make it more genuine and direct. A proverb says what people believe is true. There are many similarities between proverbs from different regions and countries. Many Sicilian proverbs are equivalent to those in other regions: Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany etc.. This may be one of the signs of the migratory flows that had Sicily as their centre, a cross- roads of history and peoples.

Here are some Sicilian proverbs:

Senti assai, parra picca e cridi nenti (Listen a lot, speak little and believe nothing)

Na vota si gabba a vecchia (You can only deceive an expert once)

E la vurpi ci dissi a lu cunigghiu: “non s’arrichisci mai cu lu travagghiu” (And the fox said to the rabbit “You’ll never get rich through work”)

Cumannari è megghiu i futtiri (Giving orders is better than making love)

Essere lu riavulu cu l’acqua santa (Being the devil with holy water; said of two people whose characters are totally incompatible)

Cu nasci tunnu, non po’ moriri quatratu (When you’re born round, you can’t die square; no personality can change its nature).

Fari di ogni pilu nu travu  (Making a fine hair into a beam; the typical attitude of a touchy person who exaggerates)

Cu mangia fa muddìchi (You make crumbs when you eat; we all make mistakes)

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