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Khmer Proverbs and Adages II
Below are even more Khmer proverbs and adages. You can check out part 1 here.
Don’t shoot those you hate; don’t lend to those you love.
You ascend to heaven on your own stairs.
A fatherless child is like a house without a roof.
For news of the heart, ask the face.
Nothing is as heavy as the weight of gratitude.
People give, don’t be quick to take.
Just as four-legged elephants occasionally slip, professional experts will stumble.
Don’t die like a snake, don’t live like a frog.
Nothing is as long as a longing heart.
When a man begins to look behind him, his best days are behind him.
One can live in a cluttered house; one cannot live with a cluttered heart.
No knot can equal the grip of a sweetheart.
Rice seedling raises the soil, a woman cultivates her man.
Obsession with a belief limits your ideas.
What the mind does not know, the eye cannot see.
Nothing is as difficult as doing a task set by one’s own wife.
Don’t reject the crooked road and don’t just go straight and take a shortcut.
The boat sails by, the shore remains.
Don’t twist in the wind; don’t just drift in the water.
A man should not talk about pretty girls in front of his wife.
A forest with no animals, a nation without sages, a people with no religion, a home without young children, like a world deprived of the blazing sun, a world composed of these characters will not last.
Work hard to make a living. Being idle is useless, no matter your misfortunes you will have enough to eat without asking for handouts from others. If you should have merit from a previous life, hard work will enable you to rise up and perhaps, becoming a millionaire.
If you are a warrior, why refuse the battle? If you are a drinker, don’t push away the cup.
The scientist falls into the abyss, the ignorant rises into heaven.
There are a lot of good ones in there, and one that is a bit more puzzling:
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I’ll drink to that.
So much wisdom here. Thanks!
I was wondering about that, too. I like to listen to frogs and identify them sound, but hadn’t really thought about emulating their lifestyle. Maybe it refers to their metamorphosis?
This is hilariously so true.
BTW, I would think of a snake dieing ignominiously, chopped it two by a hoe or machete or mashed by a club (perceived as an enemy by all), while a frog mostly just sits around or floats in the water, waiting for its next meal to come along.
This may be the truest one of all. My mother always said you could tell a lot about a person by looking at their mouth.
And there’s the old saying, attributed to many, although my mother always gave it to Ingrid Bergman, that “a woman of forty has the face that she deserves.”
Wonderful collection. Others are equally good, but I particularly like these two:
Obsession with a belief limits your ideas.
What the mind does not know, the eye cannot see.
The second one reminds me of an English saying that I like to invert.
Original: I’ll believe it when I see it.
My version: I’ll see it when I believe it.
EDIT. Actually, I slightly misquoted myself.
Original: Seeing is believing.
My Version: Believing is seeing.
A snake also dies in the bush somewhere all alone.
These are lovely aphorisms and striking because they are simultaneously non-Western and completely applicable. Thank you for sharing them.