Tsumo starting with N

Shona Proverbs

• N'anga hadzifariraniDiviners take no pleasure in one another's company; rivals in the same trade do not get on.
• N'anga nyoro inoodza marondaA healer who is too gentle lets sores rot; letting wrongdoing continue out of softness towards offenders only breeds trouble.
• Natsa kwaunobva / kwaunoenda usikuLeave things on good terms with the place you are coming from, because the place you are heading to is in darkness and unknown to you.
• Ndechemba / vakadzi kuva nedinha panhovaWomen balance heavy loads on their heads so effortlessly that men imagine they are built for it with a hollow in the skull. In truth it comes from household training begun in early childhood.
• Ndezvameso / muromo zvinyarareSome things are for the eyes alone; the mouth should keep silent about them.
• Ndezvomwana mudiki / kubata nhengu anonzi rasa iziziA child is easily fooled: he catches a drongo and is persuaded to throw it away as though it were an owl. The young are quickly talked out of what they have, or into what harms them.
• Ndezvowabaya / kuti chiropa hachisevesi sadzaDismissing liver as no good with sadza is a remark reserved for whoever did the killing.
• Ndiro yechirema hairoveA disabled person is a person like any other, so his own dish is known to the whole household and is never overlooked when food is served, even though he may eat apart.
• Ndisvike-ndisvike / inoradza vazhinji panziraRushing leads to mistakes that have to be put right, so the hurry costs more time than it saves. Before a journey it is better to pack carefully than to leave something behind and have to go back for it.
• Ndiwe wapaona kuti ageza ngaatimbirwe.
• Ndiyo hayo / nyama yousina imbwaFor a person who keeps no dogs, that much meat is quite enough.
• Ndoita zvingani / kuti mhanza, kuti mavende?How much am I expected to endure — baldness and gap-teeth at once? A person feels singularly cursed when several troubles land on him at the same moment.
• Ndomene / haichemedziWhat a person brings on himself gives him no cause to weep. There is nobody to cry to over the results of your own doing.
• Ndongwe inyama hazvienzani nenhikiti
• Ndozvarinoda gurokuro / kuripa nederereSadza served with derere is precisely what the throat is asking for.
• Ndozvenyu VaMuroora kutiza nyoka pana vanhu / mava moga moita jenyuraJust like you, daughter-in-law, to flee a snake while others are watching and then be perfectly at ease with it once you are by yourself. People keep up appearances in company and behave quite differently the moment they are out of sight.
• Ndumudzani hadzidyi mundiro imwe cheteSiblings next to one another in birth order are not fed from a single dish.
• Ngava rinofira muridzi waroThe one who incurred the debt or guilt is the one who pays for it with his own life. Each person bears the consequences of his own deeds.
• Ngazvipore / akabva mukutsvaSomeone who has already been burned takes care not to repeat the experience. Having suffered once over something, a person becomes wary of going the same way again.
• Ngezvehuru / doko dzinonyika misweThe matter belongs to the big ones; the small ones only get to dip their tails in it.
• Ngoma / muridzi wayoHow a drum sounds is down to the person beating it. The instrument is only as good as the hand on it.
• Ngoma yomurirakamwe / haidzanirwiA drum sounded in the dead of night attracts no dancers; such a summons is not one people answer.
• Ngozi nehama hazvisiyaniA wrong done by a stranger is soon let go, but a wrong done by a relative breeds a lasting grudge. Such resentment among kin can even be handed down to the wrongdoer's children.
• Ngozi yegombero / inoripwa neinobuka ruvaA spirit of this kind may be driven off with potent herbs, but a grave offence demands a costly payment. The saying points to killing, for which the dead person's people had to be compensated heavily — formerly with a young child handed over by the killer.
• Ngozi yerombe ijekakwoseSharpened along both edges, like such a sword, is the avenging spirit left behind by a beggar.
• Nguo chena inopangidziraClothing that stands out gives its wearer away. Anyone who wants to pass unnoticed must avoid looking or speaking in a way that sets him apart from ordinary people.
• Nguruve madhaka / ndeayoA person can give up an acquired bad habit such as drinking or smoking, but the temperament he was born with — a hot temper, forgetfulness — is almost never shaken off. Habits can change; character cannot.
• Ngwena haidyi chebamba / chayo chinoza nerongaA crocodile does not feed by raiding; whatever it eats is brought to it down the watercourse.
• Ngwerungwe aiva rema / akazochenjedzwa navasikanaNgwerungwe was a dullard; it was girls who in the end sharpened him up.
• Nhaka dzinoguranwa musi wenyatwaKinship ties get cut off on the day trouble arrives. Relatives are happy to claim a person while he is prospering, but once he falls on hard times they quickly deny the connection.
• Nhaka ndeyemombe / yomunhu inozvisarudzira yogaLivestock can be handed down as an inheritance, but a person has a mind of their own and must not be treated like an animal. Everyone is entitled to accept what they want and refuse what they do not, without being coerced.
• Nhaka yambuya ndeye mombe / yomunhu ingouyisa yogaPeople cannot be handed round like cattle; a person goes to the relatives they themselves choose, and forcing them to live with people they dislike only breeds resentment or an eventual return home.
• Nhambetambe inoregwa ichanakaA game is best broken off while it is still enjoyable.
• Nhambetambe inoregwa ichapisaFun and festivity should be brought to a close while they are still enjoyable, before they sour. Anything carried on without restraint loses its appeal and can end in ill feeling or lasting distaste.
• Nhamo haibatirwi pfumoYou cannot take up a spear against misfortune. Hardship is not an enemy that can be attacked with a weapon.
• Nhamo haisekanwiNever mock someone's suffering, because the same blow could fall on you another day. Here nhamo covers every kind of misfortune, death included.
• Nhamo haityi imwe. (M)One trouble does not keep another away. A person already in difficulty may be struck by a second at the same moment, since misfortunes seem to gather on one head.
• Nhamo haizivisiHardship does not sharpen a person's judgement; on the contrary, it confuses him so that he grabs at one thing and drops it for another. Someone desperate to escape trouble may end up making his position even worse through reckless attempts.
• Nhamo ine dzimba dzayoSuffering keeps returning to the same households: the person already burdened is struck again and again, while in a settled home it soon passes. Wealth behaves the same way, avoiding the poor man and sticking to those who already have.
• Nhamo inotya rombeMisfortune gives the destitute a wide berth. Disasters tend to strike ordinary people while the beggar and the outcast come through untouched.
• Nhamo ndeya vanhu / suka maokoTrouble is something everybody meets, so do not let a common misfortune eat away at you as though you were the first ever to suffer it.
• Nhamo urimbo / inonamiraHardship behaves like bird-lime: once it catches hold of a person it clings and will not let go.
• Nhamo yomumwe / haiburitsirwi misodzi. (M)Another person's hardship does not draw tears out of you; grief is only truly felt by the one it falls on.
• Nhamo yomumwe / hairadzisi musoro pasi. (M)Another person's misfortune is not enough to make you lie down with your head to the ground. Trouble that is not your own does not weigh on you the way your own does.
• Nhamo yomumwe / hairambirwi sadzaAnother person's misfortune is not a reason to refuse your own meal.
• Nhandanyadzi ihumbira neshavoThere is no disgrace in asking for something when you have something of your own to offer.
• Nharokadzi / ihunza mhosvaSquabbling among women is best left alone; anyone who gets drawn into it ends up on bad terms with everybody. A woman, especially the mother of a household, who is forever bickering robs the whole family of its peace.
• Nharokuudzwa / mangwana unoponaA contentious person who still listens to counsel will come through danger in the days ahead.
• Nhasi mapuruuru atandavara nokuti kondo dzinonzwa mesoThe tadpoles stretch out at ease today because the hammer-heads have sore eyes. Those who are habitually preyed upon relish the stretches when their tormentor is away or laid up.
• Nhava (homwe, tswanda) inorema / yasvikaThe carrying bag or basket feels at its heaviest just as you arrive at the destination.
• Nhava yebenzi haitani kusakaraA foolish person's carrying bag wears out in no time, because someone who handles their possessions badly soon ruins them.
• Nhenha isibi / inoroyaTake a beautiful girl: if stealing is not her vice, then witchcraft is.
• Nherera inoguta musi wafa maiKindness and generosity pour out on the day of a death, so the child who has lost a mother is fed and given things then. Once the mourning is over, no one remembers that the child still needs feeding, and the road ahead is hard.
• Nherera ngeisina muredzi / ine muredzi inodya ichisiya. (M)A child is truly orphaned only when nobody looks after him; with a guardian he eats his fill and has some left over. Some things thrive on their own, but others amount to nothing unless someone tends them carefully.
• Nhomba yavarume iri pashori youtaA man's hunger for meat is settled at the aiming point of his bow.
• Nhonhongora kudya chayo / kukumbirirei uchi kudondiThe large bee feeds on what is its own; it has no reason to beg honey from a smaller bee.
• Nhoro haimoni nyanga iri panzvimbo imwe cheteA kudu does not grow its curved horns by remaining in one spot. People who move around in search of a better life find new openings and a fuller experience, while never leaving one place makes life flat and dull.
• Nhumbu ibakwa rehuni / inochengeta nyoka namakonzoThe womb resembles a stack of firewood, which can shelter snakes as well as rats.
• Nhumbu ihuru / isina wayoSomeone weak with hunger pictures a huge stomach and expects to eat far more than usual, but once the meal begins he finds he can hardly exceed his ordinary capacity.
• Nhumbu inorema / yasvikaA pregnancy weighs most heavily on a woman once the time of birth has come.
• Nhumbu iziso risingatauri zvaraonaThe belly never announces what it has swallowed, and in the same way a person of standing keeps to himself what he learns and what lies in his heart.
• Nhumbu mukadzi mukuru / hairevi chayadyaThe belly behaves like a senior wife: it keeps quiet about whatever it has consumed.
• Nhumbu nditenzi wayo. (M)The belly answers to the one who owns it: whoever wants to eat has to work, since every meal is won through toil and hardship.
• Nhumwi ndiyo inouraya muridzi womundaIt is the go-between sent on an errand who brings destruction on the owner of the field. The person you entrust with your affairs can be the very one who ruins you.
• Njera yomusaririra ndiyo yeshiri.Whatever grain is left standing behind in the field becomes the portion of the birds.
• Njodzi hadziiti mbiriOnce disaster has already struck, a person stops being afraid that another one might follow; their heart is hardened to it.
• Nyakubika dombatomba anodya zvakaorera / ndidye-ndidye anodya zvimbishiSomeone who cooks the dombatomba plant properly ends up with food that is fit to eat, while the impatient eater gets it half-raw. Work done calmly and methodically pays off; work rushed brings little satisfaction.
• Nyakuravira ndiye anoziva kuti nyama yaibvaNobody can see inside another person's heart; each of us carries troubles that no one else knows about. Only the one who has tasted the thing can say how it really is.
• Nyama mazhanje / haitani kukuvaMeat goes the way of mazhanje fruit: it is gone almost as soon as it appears.
• Nyama mweni / haipedzi duraMeat is a guest in the home — however much of it you have, it is soon gone and leaves no trace, and it never eats through your grain store. No one can count on having meat with every meal; it comes only now and then.
• Nyama ndeyomubayi / vazhinji vapupuriThe one who did the killing owns the meat; everyone else is merely a witness to it.
• Nyama yakaoma / haigezerwiDried meat is eaten without first cleaning one's hands.
• Nyamagumba simidza minhenga yezizi / agoonekwa mumhindo.Get to know a person thoroughly, so that if he ever intends harm against you, you can spot it before he acts.
• Nyamakuhwa simidza nguo chena / agoonekwa mumhindoWhite clothing would serve a purpose on a gossip: even where there is no light, there would be no missing who it was. One who carries tales ought to be easy to pick out.
• Nyamusi handi mangwana. (M)Today is not tomorrow: everything shifts as the days and seasons shift. What a person holds now is not what he will hold later on.
• Nyika-mukanza haina mukwamboDo not take a wife from a family whose home and way of life are unknown to you. A marriage stands firmer when the wife comes from a settled, local family you can deal with.
• Nyoka haina chinyokanaThere is no such thing as a mere "little snake" — anything able to injure or kill is frightening no matter how small it is. Even a medicine man with all his charms fears a small snake, since everyone dreads death and injury.
• Nyoka inochenerwa chayo samaserweA snake receives its own kind hospitably, as the spotted skaapsteker does.
• Nyoka inoruma aidenhaThe snake strikes the very person who provoked it.
• Nyoka inorwiswa ndeiri musango / yapinda mumba chibata-bataA snake can be tackled safely while it is still out in the bush; once it has got into the house it is far harder to deal with.
• Nyoka yaina dukuHowever cheerful a person is, the smallest grievance settling in the heart can wipe out that happiness entirely. It takes no great calamity to unsettle someone — a minor upset is enough.
• Nyoka yapinda mumwena / hainyombwiOnce the snake is down its hole, leave off taunting it. Stirring up what lies quiet brings danger down on yourself; where a person keeps silent, even though you can see he is aggrieved, hold back from taking the matter up with him until he opens it himself. Honest intentions are no licence to prod a short-tempered person, or anyone apt to turn violent in the situation at hand.
• Nyoka yemvana / yakazvara mbavha nomuroyiThe same womb that bears a child can bring forth a thief and a witch; good parents may still produce bad offspring.
• Nyuchi dzinoruma / ngedzine uchiThe bees that sting are the very ones holding honey. The person who pushes others hard is usually the one whose ideas pay off, and hurt of body or spirit tends to come before comfort and joy.
• Nzanga inokura yerema / yomuchenjeri inopararaIt is the foolish man's village that swells in size, while the clever man's village falls apart.
• Nzanga seka dumba / dumba seka nzangaLife turns about: those who have plenty today may go hungry tomorrow, while those who are now destitute may end up wealthy. Fortunes swap places.
• Nzara chikomba / chinonyenga asingarambiHunger courts like a suitor no girl turns down. Anyone worn out by hunger will go looking for food, because nobody can hold out against it.
• Nzara ingodyisa mutupoHunger on its own is enough to make a person eat the animal of his own totem. Once hardship bites hard enough, a man will break what he holds most inviolable and act in ways nobody, himself included, ever pictured.
• Nzara makavi / inosvuurwaHunger is compared to bark fibre: just as fibre is stripped away, hunger is something that can be stripped off and got rid of.
• Nzeve hainzwiri umweNo one can do your listening for you; each person has to hear a thing with his own ears.
• Nzira haidzimiri munhuA path never vanishes in front of a traveller; follow it and it will take you somewhere. In the same way, someone with a clear goal will keep looking until he finds a way to reach it.
• Nzira hairasi munhuA traveller who keeps to the path will not be lost by it. Following the established way brings you safely to where you are going.
• Nzira ine minzwa / ndiyo ine usheWhere thorns lie on the road, that road is the one ending in chieftainship: difficult work is what pays out most.
• Nzira inofamba yomuzvinamimba / yomuzvere haifambiA pregnant woman still moves freely and can do as she pleases despite her bodily discomfort, whereas a woman who has just given birth is weak and tied down by the baby, so she cannot move quickly.
• Nzira masangaPaths are where people meet: nobody can say in advance when or how good fortune will arrive. Like a hunter setting nets, you keep trying different things until one day something comes of it.
• Nzou mutupo pana vanhu / paseri ava machikichoriIn front of others the elephant is declared forbidden meat, but out of sight it becomes a tasty dish. People profess one standard publicly and act otherwise in private.
• Nzou yakafa nesvosveA bad habit starts as something trivial, but left unchecked it grows into a serious flaw that ruins the person and harms those around him.
• Nzou yakaramba kuudzwa ikabudisa nyanga nomukanwaThe elephant refused to listen to counsel, and so its tusks ended up coming out through its mouth.
• Nzvimbo imwe haipfumisiStaying in a single place will not bring you wealth.