No language has a monopoly in insight or wisdom, but some have more than others.
Here are some of the webmaster's favourites along with English
translations:
| Per èstre urous, n'
ès que de s'en creire. |
To be happy, it is enough to think you
are. |
| Calquecop le pa que be quand las
denses s'en soun anandos. |
Sometimes the bread arrives after the teeth have gone.
|
| Ten le gendre lèns è le tiu femouriè
proche. |
Keep your son-in-law at a distance and your manure
close at hand. |
| Fennos, libres è chabals se prèston
pas. |
Wives, books and horses should not be lent. |
| Ibal mès un repetit à la padeno qu'uno
auco que bolo à la sereno. |
Better a wren in the pan than a goose in the sky. |
| Qui beu amarguent pot pos escupi
dous. |
Who drinks bitter cannot spit sweet. |
| Bélo fenno, miralh de fat. |
Beautiful woman, mirror of a fool. |
| Medicis joubes, cementèris boussuts.
|
Young physicians: bulging cemeteries. |
| Les barralhos an ès è las parets
aurelhos. |
Hedges have eyes and walls ears. |
| Dos fennos: un mercat. Tres: une
fièiro. |
Two women: a market. Three: a fair. |
| Le que rira à la finèstro, plourara
darrè la porto. |
Who laughs in front of a window will cry behind a door.
|
| Le que nèich pounjut pot pos mouri
carrat. |
He who is born pointed cannot die square. |
| Clau d'or è clau d'argent dèrben
tout apartment. |
Gold and silver keys open all doors. |
| Dabant la mort èle foc nou i a cap
de benjenço. |
Against death and fire there is no revenge. |
| A cado ausèl soun nits qu'i es bèl.
|
To every bird his own nest appears beautiful. |
| Ço que tres personnos saben es pos
un secrèt |
That which three people know is not a secret |
| Cadun biro l'aigo debès soun mouli.
|
Everyone diverts the water to his own mill. |
| Te bos fèun ennemic ? Prèsto argent
à toun amic. |
You want to make an enemy? Lend money to a friend.
|
| Cal pos cambia un chabal bornhe per
un d'abugle. |
Do not swap a one-eyed horse for a blind one. |
| A bint ans qui boli. Abint è cinq
qui trobi. A trento qui me bol. |
At twenty, whoever I want. At twenty five, whoever
I find. At thirty, whoever wants me. |
| Uno benso joube è richo, and'un èl
plouro, e ande l'autre que plouquejo. |
A young rich widow weeps with one eye and winks with
the other. |
| Lou d'uno ouro, pa del joun, bi d'un
an, peich d'un moument, fenno de quinze ans è amic de
trento ans. |
An egg of the hour, bread of the day, wine of a year,
fish of the moment, wife of fifteen and friend of thirty
years. |
| Joube que belho, bièl que dèrm, sinne
de mort. |
Youth that stays awake; the old who sleep: indications
of death. |
| Fenno que manjo pas debant bous,
darrè que manjo mès qe dous. |
A woman who does not eat in front of you eats twice
as much in secret. |
| Si debes, escriu sus l'aciè; Si on
te deu, escriu sul sable. |
What is owed to you, write in steel. What you owe,
write in sand. |
| Qui bol peta pus naut que nou a le
tiul, se fa un trauc à l'esquino. |
Who wants to fart higher than his arse, makes a hole
in his back-bone. |
| Fenno morto, capél nou. |
Dead wife: new hat. |
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