Tsumo starting with NG

Shona Proverbs

• 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.