Tsumo starting with H

Shona Proverbs

• Haiahwa mbiri hadzibidzani rwizi.
• Haitongwi yokunonoka / soro rakandwaArriving late carries no penalty of its own, provided the person does eventually turn up. Turning up late is a far smaller fault than staying away altogether.
• Hakuna chikwari chinotetera chimweNo francolin scratches up the ground for another bird's benefit. People want whatever is good for themselves, and even in danger a person will see to his own safety before thinking of anyone else.
• Hakuna machenjera mhosvaNobody is shrewd enough to talk his way out of a conviction. No one keeps wealth set aside to pay for an offence he has yet to commit, and a case always catches a person at a moment he was not expecting it.
• Hama haipiwi munhuA kinsman is not a possession that can be handed over to somebody else.
• Hama ndisheA blood relation carries the weight of a chief, because kinship is not something one can purchase or hand out — it simply exists. Even a relative who has quarrelled with you will put himself through trouble to help when you are in danger.
• Hamba hairemerwi namakwati ayoA tortoise is never weighed down by its own shell: what belongs to a person is not felt as a burden, however demanding. A man with many children does not regard raising, clothing and bringing them up as a hardship.
• Handira inorwa / inoonekwa nemivareYou can tell a fighting bull by the scars it carries.
• Hanga inobatwa namauruko manaIt takes four flights before a guinea fowl is finally caught. Nothing falls to a person until he has worked for it; the hunter knows only patience and persistence will bring him his bird.
• Hangaiwa iyemberwiRush at whatever is hard to lay hold of and it escapes you. Because birds take fright so readily, all kinds of lures and contrivances are used to trap them.
• Hapana angagona nechisingagonekwi nagoneWhere the expert fails at something, nobody else is able to do it.
• Hapana anogona mwana asiri wakeNobody looks after another person's child as well as the child's own parent would. In the same way, anything belonging to someone else is never handled with the care its owner would give it.
• Hapana chembwa / tenzi wararira mutakuraWhen the master himself has had to make do with boiled grain, there is nothing left over for the dog; too little food means everyone goes hungry.
• Hapana chinonakira chimweNothing is inherently better than anything else; whoever acquires a thing treats it as new, even if someone else has already used it. A worn item looks fresh to the person who had none, just as a divorced woman is welcomed like a bride at another man's home.
• Hapana chisingadi ushe / gwavava ndiye nevanji woruwareNobody is without an appetite for rank: sit a man beside a chief and he carries himself as a chief, put a poor man among the wealthy and he takes himself for one of them, though he has nothing in common with them.
• Hapana chisingawanisiAnything at all can end up leading to a marriage.
• Hapana kunomera sora rogaThere is no ground anywhere that brings forth nothing but weeds.
• Hapana kusina duraAlmost anywhere on earth offers some means of keeping alive. Even a newcomer in unfamiliar country, or one working poor soil, will get a crop out of it if he puts in the labour.
• Hapana (mhou) inokumira mhuru isiri yayoA cow will only call out for the calf that belongs to her.
• Hapana muchero usina masvisvinwaEating fruit always leaves something to be spat out. So too with work of any kind, bad or good: it carries its own return, and nothing a person undertakes ends without producing something.
• Hapana munwe unoiswa mukanwa / ukabuda usina mateA finger placed in the mouth always comes out wet with saliva.
• Hapana murume anofa asina ngavaNobody goes through life without borrowing from others, and it has always been so. Hardly any man dies with every obligation settled; some debt is left for his sons or relatives to clear.
• Hapana mutunhu / usina nyokaNo district exists that is free of snakes. Every place has its own hidden danger or troublesome person.
• Hapana nyika isina rindaEvery land has its graves — death is found everywhere. One can die at home just as easily as abroad.
• Harahwa mbiri hadzibidzani rwiziWhere the same ignorance is shared by both, neither is able to be of help to the other.
• Harahwa mbiri hadziurayaniTwo people burdened by the same hardship rarely turn on each other, since each depends on the other to get by. They help one another as far as their means allow.
• Hari haiviri isina mukuchidziri.Whatever a person sets out to do, they need the backing and encouragement of relatives and friends to keep going until they succeed. Without someone to keep the fire going, nothing comes to the boil.
• Hari isi yako haisiyrwi muto.
• Hari mbiri dzinovirirana / hadzina mabikiroIf two pots are on the boil together, there is no cooking them.
• Hauzivi chakakodza nguruveYou have no way of telling what it was that put the fat on the pig.
• Hauzivi chingaunza tsapfuThere is no knowing what may bring on the calves of the legs; the cause of a thing is not something you can foresee.
• Hauzivi tsanga inokodza tsambakodziYou cannot tell which grain is the one that thickens the porridge. Do not throw a thing away as useless, because the very item you dismiss today may be the one that serves you tomorrow.
• Hombarume haatyi mumwe. (hombarume: expert hunter)You should not back away from something you have set out to do just because another person is after the same thing. A young man courting a girl has no reason to give her up simply because a rival is courting her too.
• Hombarume haiiti shura nesangoA hunter reads no ominous or mysterious meanings into the forest.
• Hombarume kutema tsvimbo / kuona sango kukuraA skilled hunter shapes knobkerries because he has sized up a wide stretch of bush to hunt. When a person starts preparing in a way no one expected of him, it shows he has a plan in mind.
• Homwe yerombe, haina chainosiya.
• Hope ndimapanungo / maoko haaswedziA job looks heavier to the eye than it really is; it is the face that flinches, not the hands. Once someone actually sets to work he usually finds the thing far lighter than he feared.
• Hove dzine murongaJust as fish follow a set channel, a community's life runs along a path already laid down, and those who keep to the customs handed down to them build a strong line. That inherited pattern is what secures the future and spurs people on.
• Huku haibiwi / inotandisa botsoWhat is done in secret eventually comes to light, and every deed carries its own consequence, which may come back on the doer.
• Huku kudzidzowana gonye / inopedza musha naroSomeone raised in poverty who suddenly comes into plenty cannot contain himself, parading his good fortune about and fretting that others may take it from him.
• Hukwana inodya / ndeiri pana maiThe chick that feeds well is the one that stays beside its mother. Staying close to the source of provision is what keeps you well supplied.
• Humburira chishapisoTo treat something as of little account is to bring shame on yourself.
• Hunguhwe cherire / mangwana ichauya yava nomukwendeThe jackal that keeps roaming about will come back tomorrow carrying a bundle of prey. One who wanders off in search of something eventually returns with a haul.
• Huru ingokudzwa ngedzayo.
• Huru inokudzwa newayoWhen someone owns something great and well known, others envy him and play it down, so the great thing ends up being praised by its owner alone. People dislike seeing another acquire plenty while they themselves have little.
• Hurudza inofa ichinzi inodyaA skilled farmer can go hungry while everyone around him assumes his granaries are still full. People refuse to accept that someone once well off can fall into want.
• Hwahwa muroyi aedzerwa,
• Hwaro hwerongo hahurasi nyamaNothing gets lost at the bottom of the pot: when an elder starts probing small details, he already knows the whole story behind the matter.
• Hwoni hwenyoka / kuruma chaisingadyi. (K)Someone who destroys for the sheer sake of destroying is like a snake that bites what it will not eat. Such spite brings the doer no benefit at all.