Asturian-American Migration Forum

If you know of any Asturian proverbs, please post them here.

Bob Martinez

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Traducción Terechu

Si sabéis algún proverbio asturiano, por favor insertadlo aquí.

Bob Martíne

Al platu vendras, arbeyu, si nun ye de mozu, de vieyu

("Oh pea, you`ll come to the plate, if not when young, then when old" - meaning something like 'soon or late we`ll all meet, it is just a question of time')

Depues de vieyu, gaiteru

("He became a piper when he was old", meaning that someone is following a childish behavior in an old age, just because he didn`t do it when was younger)

A los cuarenta retenta

("When you are forty years old, you try it again", about the mid-age crisis)

Nun se pue tar al platu y a les tayaes

("you can`t be eating before your plate, and cutting the meat in the same time", so just choose your place and stay in it)

Rubien de cena, bon dia espera, si lloviendo nun se queda

("When the sun is red at sunset, it will be sunny tomorrow, unless it starts to rain before this very night")

El que llone va casar, o va que-y enganen o va a enganar

("The one who looks for a bride from a distant place, wants to fool or wants to be fooled")

La palabra d`un paisanu val como una escritura

("The word of a gentleman is worth a formal document")

Si a Candeleira chora, l`inverno xa vai fora, si a Candeleira ri, l`invierno ta por vir

("If Candlemass cries, winter is over, if Candlemass laughs, winter is still to come", something like the shadow of the beaver and six more winter weeks)

Now a riddle:
"Mia buola con un manton, cubriu el prau ya`l riu non"

("My grandmother with a sheet, covered the meadow but not the river"- it is the snow, obviously)

Thanks very much for the interesting proverbs. You wrote:

"Rubien de cena, bon dia espera, si lloviendo nun se queda."

This reminds me of the English language saying "Red sky at night, salior's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."


You also wrote:

Si a Candeleira chora, l`inverno xa vai fora, si a Candeleira ri, l`invierno ta por vir. ("If Candlemass cries, winter is over, if Candlemass laughs, winter is still to come", something like the shadow of the beaver and six more winter weeks)

The American legend is that if on February 2 the groundhog sees his shadow, he becomes frightened and returns to his burrow, and we will have six more weeks of winter. If it is cloudy and the groundhog cannot see his shadow (i.e., it is rainy or overcast), winter's end is near. Groundhogs (Marmota monax) are also known as woodchucks. Beavers (Castor canadiensis) are a somewhat different animal. There are several locations in the US (such as Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, and Essex Connecticut, that make quite a ceremony out of it. In Essex, there is a parade that includes a float in the form of a giant groundhog, etc.) Does Asturias have any ceremony or folk practice surrounding the Candlemass legend?

My father reports that he recalls two proverbs from his childhood.

Hermanino menos, bocadillo mas.
(Said to a child who complains about not liking an item of food--one child less, more for the rest of us.)

El que mama no llora.
(Sort of the inverse of the squeaky wheel getting the grease--he who nurses doesn't cry.)

Bob Martinez

In Asturias and especially in certain areas of Leon (which bears the same cultural heritage as Asturias) certain strange usages were recorded by anthropologists early in the XXth century, all related to the 2nd of February. Supposedly in that day, Santa Brigida decided the weather (and thus the harvest) of the rest of the year. Brigida is the Christian version of the old celtic goddess Brighid. In Leon this Brigida was depicted as an old woman bearing a spindle.
In the Isle of Man, on the 1st of February the legend says there was a certain giant old woman (Caillach, in Mannix language) who might stay at home, if the weather was rainy that day, or go out for a walk if the weather was good. In the first case, the weather would be good the rest of the year, otherwise if would be bad. The idea is the same as in the Asturian proverb, and the American legend about the groundhog. I think all these proverbs, legends and superstitions bear a common pagan origin.
I had heard about Punxatawney in a movie with Bill Murray and Andie McDowell...
Three more proverbs
-"Trabayo feito ben parez" / "A finished work looks good", urging people not to procastinate. You will realice that the language is quite different from central Asturian, this proverb comes from the NW corner of the country, where Galician influence is strong.
-"Primer dia de agosto, primer dia de inverno" /"1st day of August, first day of winter". This one puzzles me. Did people really notice a change in the weather on the 1st of August, or maybe this is just a reminiscence of the old calendar? In Celtic calendar, the 1st of August (lugnasad) marked the end of summer and the beginning of fall season.
-"Si ruxe la mar por Mouguias, coye llena pa once dias, si ruxe por Barayo, coye os bois y xunce el carro" / "If the sea roars around Mouguias, fetch wood enough for eleven days, if it roars around Barayo, take your oxen and yoke them to the cart", this is a basical weather forecast for the "Vaqueiros" from the hills between Barayo (a beach in the county of Luarca) and Mouguias (a parish in the coast of Coana, where I stand at this very moment)

Bob wrote:If you know of any Asturian proverbs, please post them here.

Bob Martinez

Yo se otro: "Tener más grande el güeyu qu´ell botiellu".En castellano sería : "comer más con los ojos que con la boca"


Translation by Bob:

I know another: "To have eyes that are bigger than one's stomach". In castellano it would be: "to eat more with the eyes that with the mouth."

With the approach of Groundhog Day, I re-read some earlier posts from Mouguias. His riddle reminds me of one of the Exeter riddles. In modern English it would read "On the way a miracle, water become bone." The answer is, of course, ice. Are there other riddles like this from Asturias?

Bob
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Traducción Terechu

Al aproximarse el Día de la Marmota, estuve releyendo alguno de los mensajes de Mougias. Su adivinanza me recuerda a una de las adivinanzas de Exeter. En inglés moderno sería "Por el camino un milagro, agua convertida en hueso." La respuesta es, naturalmente, hielo.
¿Hay alguna otra adivinanza de este tipo en Asturias?

I don't remember any riddles, but here are some more proverbs:
Yo no me acuerdo de ninguna adivinanza, pero ahí van algunos dichos:

“La que nunca llevó bragues les costures fáen-y llagues.”
(She who never wore drawers gets sores from the seams)
Referring to the newly-rich who are not used to their wealth and brag about it constantly.

“Háceste de miel, cómente les mosques”.
(If you turn to honey the flies will eat you).
Meaning that good-natured people are always taken advantage of.

“A bragues ensuches nun se pesquen truches”.
(Dry breeches won’t let you catch trouts)
Meaning that you have to risk something to get something.

“A tou gochín y llega su Samartín”
(Martinmas comes to every pig)
Meaning that sooner or later everybody pays for his sins.

"Sol madrugador y cura callejeru,
ni el sol durará mucho, ni el cura será buenu."
(Early sun and runabout priest,
neither will the sun last, nor the priest be any good)

Uno de mis favoritos, aunque es un antiguo dicho castellano, no asturiano:
One of my favourites, though it's an old Castillian saying, not Asturian:

"Arrieros somos y en el camino nos veremos".
(Muleteers we are and on the road we shall meet)
Meaning that you can't run and hide, because sooner or later you'll have to face up to your deeds.

Terechu

Terechu por favor corrigelo sí está mal, NUN YES DE DÓNDE NACES SI NÓ DE DONDE PACES,
Cuando las barbas de tú vecino veas secar , pon la tuyas a remojar..
Dime de qué presumes y té diré de qué careces,saludos

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Transl. Terechu

You're not from where you're born, but from where you feed.
(Meaning that you normally love the people who raise you more than you do your blood relatives).

When you see your neighbour's beard being cut off, start soaking your own.
(Meaning that when the mob starts attacking people like yourself, they won't be long before they come after you. This applies to all major social changes)

Tell me what you brag about and I'll tell you what you lack.
(This is self-explanatory; it implies that folks lie about their achievements or possessions).

Marzo marzuelo, qué traes un día malo y otro bueno.
Marzo ventoso y Abril lluvioso traen a Mayo florido y hermoso.

>>Arrieros somos y en el camino nos veremos".
(Muleteers we are and on the road we shall meet)
Meaning that you can't run and hide, because sooner or later you'll have to face up to your deeds.

Funny that you mention it. The Asturian version of that proverb would be, precisely, "Al platu vendras, arbeyu, si nun ye de mozu, de vieyu" that I enclosed before.
Certainly Asturian proverbs are not simply a translation of Castilian ones...


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Transation by Bob

To the plate you will come, [little] pea, if not in your youth then in your old age.

"Abril güeveril y mayu pitayu"

Translation: April month of eggs (of birds), May month of newborn little birds

¡Exactamente, Muguias! No olvidemos que la región geograficamente más aislada de todas ha sido y es Asturias. Aquí se ha conservado un idioma mucho más cercano al latín puro que todos los demás y hemos desarrollado nuestra "pobre" cultura al margen de casi todos.
Pero "arrieros somos" es un símil buenísimo, mucho más dramático que el de "al platu vendrás" - imagínaos el encuentro, por ejemplo, en pleno Puerto Pajares, con la carretera nevada y sin posibilidad de volver atrás! ¡Las hostias que llevaría el que las debía?

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Just so, Muguias! Let's not forget that the most isolated region in geographical terms has been, and still is Asturias. We have preserved a language which is much closer to pure Latin than all others and have developed our own "poor" culture apart from everybody else.
However, "Muleteers we are" is a great simile, much more dramatic than "to the plate you shall come" - imagine the encounter, for instance, on the snowy road of the Pajares mountain pass, with no possibility of turning back! The bashing the culprit would get!

Terechu

Marzo marciando y Abril penerando (penerar:nevar puquitino)
El que xinte la nata que garre la garabata(paezme nun toi seguru que quier dicir dalgo como el que quiera algo que trabaye)
Un saludu!

"El que xinte la nata que garre la garabata" no quiere decir que quien quiera conseguir algo debe esforzarse, eso lo expresa el refrán castellano "el que quiera peces que se moje el culo". El dicho asturiano a lo que se refiere es a que quien debe esforzarse por algo es quien saca provecho, por lo tanto, si el beneficio no es para mí, yo no trabajo por ello. En resumen, negarse a hacer un trabajo para beneficio de otro.

Ois ho, tá bien qu'escribas n'asturianu, pero podíes polo menos facer la torna al inglés, que si non los collacios americanos nun son a pescancialo, ¿nun te paez?

Saludos