Tsumo starting with U

Shona Proverbs

• Ubatebate hungourayisa. (M)Making a habit of pilfering small things or fooling around carelessly will eventually land you in front of a court. The same goes for a man who plays around with every woman he meets — trouble follows.
• Ubatebate hunopariraLight-fingered pilfering and tricky meddling bring consequences down on the one who does it.
• Uchauya naTsuro usina imbwa
• Uchenjeri hunoda n'anga / hahudi murapwaCleverness is the diviner's business, not the patient's.
• Ugaro mwena / kutevedza unogumaLiving is like a burrow in the ground: follow it far enough and you reach its end.
• Ukadya gora / mangwana rinofuma rokudyawoEat a wild cat and the day will come when it eats you in turn. Anyone who knowingly dares to break a prohibition will have to carry the consequences later.
• Ukadzinga tsuro mbiri / imwe inopunyukaGo after two hares at once and one of them is bound to get away.
• Ukagarosekerera hwiza / mangwana dzinokudyira muriwoIf you make locusts welcome, in due course they will devour your vegetable garden.
• Ukaimba rumbo rwenhamo / wapararaAnyone in hardship must keep his strength up, because endless self-pity and brooding drain away his ideas and leave him without any plan for helping himself. To dwell on your misery is to be ruined by it.
• Ukama hahugezwi
• Ukama hahusukwi nemvura hukabvaKinship is not something you can wash off with water; a blood tie stays whatever happens.
• Ukama hunonhuwaKinship gives off a scent: everyone knows his own relatives, and no one claims a person as kin without knowing him. Relatives are drawn to each other and, even meeting for the first time, soon discover the connection — while a tie that does not exist cannot be manufactured.
• Ukama hwokwamai hahukanirwi nhakaRelatives on the mother's side do not quarrel over an inheritance, since property and succession do not pass between them. That is why such relatives get on so well — there is no jealousy over estates or chieftainship to divide them.
• Ukama hwokwamai hahuna rwiranhakaTies on the mother's side give no ground for quarrelling over an inheritance.
• Ukama igasva / hunozadziswa nokudyaKinship on its own is only half a thing; it is completed by sharing food with one another. Visiting and eating together is what makes a relationship whole.
• Ukama ndihwo hukuru / kudya musvitsa. (M)Kinship counts for far more than what is set before you to eat; nobody should gauge his affection for a relative by the size of the meal. Real closeness and good company outweigh the food.
• Ukama urimbo / kudambura hahubviKinship behaves like bird lime: you may snap the strand, but the stickiness remains. Ties of blood are not dissolved by breaking them off.
• Ukanzwa bofu richiti rinorova / pane parakazendamaWhen a blind man boasts that he can strike you, it means he has something or someone propping him up.
• Ukaona tsuro yomisa nzeve / yonyera nhanga yokutizaA normally calm person who suddenly turns jumpy and odd is getting ready to dodge something — blame, shame or exposure.
• Ukapa munhu gavi refu / mangwana anozvisungiriraEach person should only be allowed as much latitude as his own judgement can handle, since some people who are given free rein end up harming themselves or disgracing themselves.
• Ukashaya nyama kumavhiyiro / hauchaiwani kumbaIf you come away empty-handed from the place where the beast was butchered, there will be nothing waiting for you back at the house. Every matter has its moment, and an opportunity missed while it lasts does not return.
• Umambo kutambidzana.Rulership is something handed from one person to the next; every ruler will one day leave the seat, by death or removal, so the office is never his own possession.
• Umba hwehosi husina marevereThe chief's senior wife's barrenness is a thing nobody may bring up. A fault in a junior gets pounced on at once by an elder; let the elder slip in exactly the same way, and no word of correction will be tolerated.
• Umhizha hwejaha / huri pademo. (M)A young man's skill shows itself in how he handles an axe. Rather than sit and complain when he lacks something, a man should make himself competent with the tools of a trade so he can provide for himself.
• Unaki hwemukadzi / huri pamwanaA wife's worth in her husband's eyes is measured by the children she bears him, just as anyone values what repays him. A woman who bears no children often loses her husband's regard.
• Ungofa ngenyowa kudya charoyewa.
• Ungokutukira badza / ungokupa upfumi. (M)Wealth is what you are given by the person who urges you to take up a hoe for weeding.
• Unofa ukuruwo / badza risati raguka muguraYou will come to a sudden and unforeseen end, like a still-new hoe that snaps at its narrow end.
• Upenyu ihwaku-mukwaku / hapana dacha rinodakukira rimwe.Life is a series of leaps that each person has to make personally; no frog takes the jump on another frog's behalf.
• Upenzi imhepo / hunofamba nenguvaFolly comes and goes like the wind, arriving when it pleases. It describes someone whose behaviour swings without warning, decent one moment and troublesome the next.
• Uranda ndohwepfuma (zvipfuwo) / hwomunhu hunozvirwiraServitude is fit only for livestock and property. A human being will always fight his way out of it to freedom.
• Urombo hahudzingirwi ngetsvimboYou cannot drive poverty away by chasing it with a club. It is not the kind of thing force can be used against.
• Urombo hahuurayiBeing poor torments the heart, but it does not take a person's life away.
• Urombo hwamatede kuniwa nemvura / makurwe ari mumhatsoThose who look the sharpest are often the ones who come unstuck in the business of daily living, while the people nobody expects much of manage to look after themselves quite well.
• Urombo hwayo mhembwe / kufa iri pamusungoIt is bitter luck for a duiker to meet its death already caught fast in a snare.
• Urombo uroyi.
• Urombo uroyi / hahuudzwi munhuPoverty is like witchcraft: you do not tell a person about it to his face. Nobody enjoys being reminded that he is poor or lagging behind.
• Urombo usiyiranwaPoverty tends to be handed down from one generation to the next. The little a poor man has is the first to run out while those with plenty still have some left, just as his one beast is the first to die in a year of drought.
• Usabata matope / pasina mvuraWhere there is no water, keep your hands out of the mud.
• Usachenjerera n'anga / kurapwa uchakudaDo not try to be too smart with the healer while you still depend on his treatment.
• Usadzinganisa mhuka huru nomwoyosviba / haipindi muguruDo not chase large game in a rush of frustration, for it will not duck into a burrow the way a hare does. Big undertakings have to be followed patiently, bit by bit, over a long haul.
• Usaguta ukasunda duraDo not eat yourself so full that you end up knocking the granary over.
• Usaita hanya nakatsogodo / nyama yechidembo inodyiwa nowakachena mwoyoPay no attention to petty fault-finders: polecat meat goes to the one who is unbothered by what others say. Someone set on a course of action should disregard critics so long as he is satisfied that what he is doing is right.
• Usajaidza makudo neanokamhinaEven a baboon that limps should not be indulged. Whatever carries evil in it ought to be destroyed the moment it is seen, not reared.
• Usakusha mbeu mvura yaendaSearching for something you know for certain is gone brings no benefit. Sowing after the rains have passed is effort spent too late.
• Usanyengedza nyamukuta / kuzvara uchakudaDo not play the midwife false while you still hope to bear more children.
• Usapedza mapfumo mukubaya nhema / idzo nzou dzichauyaDo not use up all your spears on rhinoceroses while elephants may still come along. Keep something in reserve rather than spending everything on the lesser quarry.
• Usapepuka dete / gobvu rapindaDo not busy yourself sorting out trivial matters once weighty ones have arrived. The small thing gives way to the large.
• Usapinza munwe mumwena / unobuda warebaDo not push your finger into a hole; it will come out longer than it went in. Meddling where you do not belong leaves you worse off.
• Usarasa mutsakara / nokuona chitsvaDo not get rid of what is old simply because something new has come into view.
• Usaravidza chembere muto wegwaya / mangwana inofira mudzivaDo not give an old woman a taste of bream sauce, or tomorrow she will meet her death in the pool going after more. Once someone has tasted a delicacy beyond their reach, they will take reckless risks to get it again.
• Usaridze chikwee / usati wabira rwiziHold back the shout of triumph until the river is behind you. What is worked at jointly and called a benefit to the whole district may in the end bring you nothing of your own; it is your own property you should count on.
• Usaridze ngoma nedemoAn axe is no way to sound a drum. Put a tool to work where it does not belong, or take something up once its time has gone by, and you can wreck the whole job.
• Usaruka nhava rutsva rwatsvaOnce fire has gone through the veld, that is no moment to take up the weaving of a string bag.
• Usasunge muromo wenzombe inopura zviyoKeep on good terms with anyone you are still going to need: annoy him today and tomorrow he may turn down your request. The same holds between borrower and lender — while the dependence lasts, quarrelling is foolish.
• Usasvora mbodza neinozvimbiraWhat looks poor and is generally looked down upon often turns out to be of far more use than what everyone admires. Equally, what is in fact harmful is not always recognised as such in time.
• Usaswerera kurwira chitundu chamakakanje / chehove chiripoPeople squander their wits and energy quarrelling over small things, so that nothing is left in them when a matter of real weight arrives.
• Usatanda hwiza / idzo tsuro dzichauyaDo not spend your effort chasing locusts when hares may still appear. Small gains are not worth exhausting yourself for when bigger ones may follow.
• Usatsindira mwena unobuda ishwaDo not stop up the hole that the flying ants come out of.
• Usatsvaga nhava muuswa / iro sora ratsvaDo not go hunting for a string bag in grass that has already burned. There is no sense searching where the thing you want could not possibly have survived.
• Usatuke verwendo / rutsoka haruna mhunoA foot has no nose; so keep your insults off the people you are travelling with.
• Usatya bhurukwa kusviba / iwe wakateya mariva murutsvaA man who has set his stone traps out in burnt grass has no business fearing soot on his trousers.
• Usatya ngwena / iwo makumbo ari mudzivaThere is no sense in dreading crocodiles once your legs are already standing in the pool.
• Usavaka danga pasina mombeDo not put up the structure for something you do not actually possess. Effort spent providing for what is not there is wasted.
• Usaverenga mbeva nemiduneDo not count shrews in with the mice. When a hard job has to be done, there is no point in numbering among your helpers those who can contribute nothing of substance.
• Usaverenga mbeva nemiswe (yadzo)When you tally up mice, leave the tails out of the reckoning.
• Usayeuka bako / waniwaBeing rained on is too late a point at which to let the cave come to mind.
• Usayeuka bindu / vamwe vakohwaOnce other people's harvest is already in, that is no time to turn your mind to ploughing the field. Take in the advice others give you while it can still help, instead of wailing "if only I had known" after the thing has happened.
• Usayeuka pwere waminyaThere is neither fairness nor duty in a generosity that begins only after you have filled your own stomach. Children are remembered when there is an errand to run, but overlooked when there is food to share.
• Ushamwari hwechembere / hunopera dzagumhana nemidonzvoThe companionship of old women finishes in a quarrel, with the two of them striking each other with their walking sticks.
• Ushamwari hwechikweyakweya / mangwana tichanzwa zvipini zvoriraA friendship that becomes excessively close is heading for trouble; before long the two will come to blows, with hoe handles heard breaking over each other.
• Ushe imhute / inoparara zuva rabudaChieftainship is like mist: it melts away as soon as the sun comes up, so authority is not a lasting thing.
• Ushe muzhanje / hunokuvaChieftainship is like a wild loquat that bears only in season: nothing lasts, everything has its end, and a person enjoying good times should not assume they will continue.
• Ushe ukokwa kuna vamweChieftainship is something other people call you to, not something you claim for yourself; good conduct, decency and a modest bearing are what win a person the respect of others. Humility in a leader is where greatness and popular support begin.
• Ushe varandaA man is only called chief because he has many trustworthy people under him; his rank rests entirely on his followers.
• Usikana ishonga kamwe / chikuru umvanaBeing a girl is finery for one short season; what really matters is becoming a mother.
• Usiku humwe chete hahupedzi usheSpending a single night somewhere lowly does not strip a person of his chieftainship. One brief episode cannot undo a person's standing.
• Usiku igore / zuva igoreA single day or night holds room for a great deal, good and bad alike; what begins well can still finish badly, and a passing happiness can turn into disappointment.
• Uswa hwenyati ndohuri mudumbu / huri pamuromo inofa nahwoThe buffalo's grass is the grass already in its stomach; whatever is still in its mouth can be lost with it when it dies. Only what you have genuinely secured counts as yours.
• Uti fare-fare tindike / vakuru igomoHowever much one is enjoying himself, he should not forget the respect owed to elders. Constantly fooling about with them is unwise, since you cannot tell at what point they will take offence.
• Utsi hwenyama hahutosvoriSmoke rising from meat being roasted does not sting the eyes.
• Uzivi hunoda varidziKnowledge or skill carries weight only when it comes from those who genuinely possess it.