Tsumo starting with R

Shona Proverbs

• Rakupa / rine zharaThe one who has given you food is hungry himself. A guest who has been fed has nothing left to do but say his farewells, and in the same way handing a person the thing he came for tells him your business together is over. Be sparing, then, with what you do for others, if you want them to stay near you and to keep their regard for you.
• Rambakudzihwa / akazoonekwa neropa kudonhaThe one who would not be warned was afterwards seen with blood dripping from him. Refusing good advice eventually shows itself in plain injury.
• Rangova zinatsawafa / kuuraya n'ombe paguva rehamaThere is nothing to be gained by trying to settle accounts with someone you wronged once that person is already dead. Compensation brought after the cruelty has been done helps nobody, and the show of pity can even look like contempt for the one you injured.
• Rava jandakuchira kutsenga kwavanamavende.
• Ravira raedza / usiku hahuriri shiriEach day must carry its own work; birds do not sing at night, so night is not for labour. Finish today what belongs to today instead of pushing it onto tomorrow.
• Rega kubvunza nyama kuti ndeyokugocha / iwe muto uchiuonaIt shows poor thinking to ask how something came about when the cause is plainly in front of you. Asking about roast meat while the gravy is there in view is a question that answers itself.
• Rega kufananidza nguo nedzaTarubvaTarubva's clothes are not the standard against which yours should be set.
• Rega kuguta nokurutsira mundiro yawadyira.Once a dish has fed you to fullness, do not foul it by being sick into it. It warns against repaying a source of benefit with disgrace.
• Rega kunera nyoka uchisiya rupinda.Deal with a trouble right through to the end rather than leaving any part of it standing to cause fresh quarrels. Bad habits in particular should be pulled up entirely and finished with.
• Rega kusanganisa mombe dzako nedzasheKeep your own cattle apart from the chief's herd.
• Rega kuyera nyoka negavi / iyo iripoWhile the snake is lying there in front of you, do not go taking its length with a strip of fibre. Snakes are feared dead as much as alive, and nobody will go near one or put a hand on it simply to find out how long it is.
• Regai dzive shiri / mazai haana mutoDo not snatch at something before it has come to maturity; eggs make no stew, but birds do. Hold back and let a matter ripen, and you will enjoy its full reward instead of a fraction of it.
• Regazvipore / akabva mukutsvaThe one who urges that things be allowed to cool off is speaking as someone who has already been burnt.
• Reva ishe wakakwira pachibweIf you are going to talk about the chief, do it from up on a rock. Someone who is being discussed behind his back has a way of turning up at that very moment without anyone noticing.
• Rina manyanga / hariputirwi mumushunjeWrongdoing cannot be kept hidden indefinitely; sooner or later it shows itself. Even when it is only half concealed, people will be whispering about it.
• Rinofa harina nzeve / rine nzeve rinozvinzwiraEars are missing on the one that is dying; the one still possessing ears does its own hearing.
• Rombe pakata hana / mukaka ndowavaridziA person with nothing of his own should keep himself in check rather than pick and choose; the milk belongs to whoever owns the cattle.
• Rombe rinosekwa richienda / kana rodzoka hedzo nhumbiHe leaves to the laughter of others; he comes home with a load.
• Roora mwana wababa vane dongoTake a wife whose father's former homesteads can be pointed out.
• Roora rousina baba / rinonetsaFor a young man who has no father, getting married is hard.
• Rova chiuni / amai vari kumundaDo what you mean to do while whatever could stop you is still out of the way. The moment when no obstacle is present is the moment to act, and it should not be wasted.
• Ruchenjeresa runotsikisa moto.Being nosy causes a person to get into trouble.
• Rudo ibofu.
• Rudo moto / unokuchidzirwaLove is a fire that has to be fed with fresh wood: kind acts between the two keep it burning, and without them it cools and dies out.
• Rudo ndimawarire / mavanza-uremaLove spreads itself over a person like a blanket and conceals every flaw. Someone in love is as good as blindfolded, missing the faults everyone else finds obvious.
• Rudo rune ngondi ngeruna ani / kudya ichisiyira nyarwanaAs the male baboon does, so does every creature: it reserves its special attention for the partner it favours. Anyone who comes by good food shares it out among those dear to him. (ngondi: male baboon)
• Rudo runenge ruvara / runokunaraAs a colour loses its brightness, so does love. However strong the attraction once was, it thins out over the years, and people who loved intensely do sometimes part.
• Rudo rwehuku kuisa vana mumapapiro / ziso riri kurukodziOut of love a hen gathers her chicks under her wings while her eye stays fixed on the hawk. Protective affection shelters and keeps watch at the same time.
• Rufu harugogodzi
• Rufu haruna Ishe.
• Rufu haruna makata.
• Rufu haruna mukwidza.
• Rufu haruna n'angaNobody can know in what manner or from what quarter death will come, and nobody is spared it.
• Rufu haruna ndakachenjera.
• Rufu haruna ndanatsaDeath makes no selection and respects no merit; chief and servant, the upright and the foolish, all meet the same end.
• Rufu haruzivisi.
• Rufu ishasha yedzimwe shasha.
• Rufu ndimadzongonyodze.
• Rufu ndimavenganise.
• Rufu runoita wegondo / rinotora nhiyo richisiya mai vachichemaDeath shows no discrimination or pity: it carries off even a tiny infant while the grown-ups are left behind. Like an eagle seizing a chick from the hen, it takes the most defenceless.
• Rugarahomba / harugari murume mutyiA bold, adventurous way of living is no place for a timid man. Things come to those who suffer for them and take the risk; nothing walks up to a man sitting idle, and the fainthearted die in their faintheartedness.
• Rugare rwedafi / runouya nemvura kunayaThe frog's good times arrive only when the rain does. People who puff themselves up over one stroke of good fortune invite laughter, because everyone else can see the pleasure will not last.
• Rugare rwenda / kuruma akaitakuraA louse repays the one who carries it by biting him. People should not injure those who feed and care for them, as a child does who abuses the parents he ought to be thanking for raising him.
• Rukombesa ropa runorasa neriri mumbiyaGrabbing too greedily at the blood being collected can make you knock over what is already safely in the dish. Over-eagerness for more costs you what you had already secured.
• Rukombeswa maropa ungorasa ngeiri mumbiya.
• Rukova rwizi / kuyambuka unokwinya nguoEven a small stream counts as a river: you still have to gather up your clothes before wading across it.
• Rume risinganyepi / hariroriA man who does not speak up will never take a wife.
• Rumoto runakira / ndirwo runokonza mbareIt is the fire that feels comfortably warm that ends up scorching the skin. What seems most pleasant often carries harmful consequences that are not easy to see coming.
• Rushambwa ngerwembwa / rwomunhu runoenderwa kun'angaMisfortune may simply be left to fall on a dog, but when it strikes a person the matter is carried to a diviner.
• Rushavashava rune zizi / kwarafamba rinonzi muroyiWherever the owl turns up, people call it a witch; such is its misfortune. The unlucky man fares the same way — anything that goes wrong around him is laid at his door, though the fault is not his.
• Rutsva runomerera / nokuona rumwe. (-merera: grow)Trading harsh words only feeds anger and makes it spread further. If you meet an insult with silence, the other person soon falls quiet as well.
• Rutsva runovira / nokuona rumweOne grass fire catches and spreads once it sees another burning.
• Ruva rasvava / harikwezvi nyuchiA flower past its prime draws no bees; once a woman has grown old, men no longer find her appealing.
• Ruzambu kugara munyemba / rwoti ndava nyembawoA weed growing in the middle of a bean patch supposes that it too is a bean. Being found among better things does not change what one actually is.
• Ruzivanzira rungoeredza.
• Rwavhi kufamba zvishoma / asi shungu runadzoA person may look calm and say nothing while carrying deep resentment inside; some people simply cannot voice what is in their hearts. If someone you have wronged does not hit back, do not mistake that silence for surrender — he may be keeping quiet only because he is too weak to answer.
• Rwavhi kupinduka nhando / icho chisingagoni kurumaThe chameleon shifts its colour to no purpose, for it has no bite in it. A display of change or menace means little when there is no power behind it.
• Rwendo ndorwa apfiga imbaThe journey belongs to the one who has shut up his house behind him; only a person who has put his own affairs in order is free to set out.
• Rwendo ngerwe atwara butwa. (M)A trip belongs to the one who has already shouldered his bundle: talk of going is not going. We credit a person's intention only once we see him actually preparing or carrying it out.
• Rwendo rwomuranda runoziviwa nashe wake.
• Rwira warumwa nengwe / wenzara anoti ndakapona namano anguSave the one seized by the leopard, for the one you saved from hunger will claim he pulled through by his own cleverness. Snatching a person from death earns lasting gratitude, while feeding the starving is easily forgotten.
• Rwizi haruyeredzi mbwendeWhat can kill you is no subject for joking. Scoffing at a danger and saying you will just try it out to see can end a life. Know what you are dealing with first.
• Rwizi rukuru kupwa / mombe dzinonwepi?When the one who has been feeding, sheltering and caring for a group is gone, those who depended on him are left helpless, with nowhere else to turn for the same support.
• Rwizi rukuru rungozadzwa ngezvikohora.
• Rwizi runokura / nezvikovaA river only becomes large because of the streams that feed it, just as a chief's standing rests on the number of people who follow him. Strength in authority comes from the size of one's following.
• Rwizi ruzere haruedzwi negumboYou do not test a river that is in full flood by wading a leg into it. Some dangers are too great to be sampled or measured by trial.
• Rwomuranda rwakoneswa norwashe / rwashe rwakoneswa nemvura kunayaWhat the subject set out to do is thwarted by the chief, and what the chief set out to do is thwarted by falling rain. The chief may carry out whatever he wishes apart from what God thwarts; the subject, standing beneath the chief, is forbidden by the chief to carry out what he too wishes.