Pashto Proverbs

پشتو متلونه

Topic: Class & Local

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• Jealousy ate up the mountain, taxes the plain
  غر ننګ اوخوړ، دامان قلنګ اوخوړ
  This is an old expressive saying. In the hills, rivalries and feuds ruined the people though they were free and independent; and in the plain, the heavy arbitrary taxation imposed by the Government ruined the people.
   

• Though the army be one's father, it is bad.
  لښکر که د پلار وي، هم بد دې
  Means that a number of men, be they a regiment on the march or a Deputy Commissioner's camp, wherever they stop, are a nuisance, as they eat up everything and do a lot of damage. This feeling is common everywhere.
   

• Bang won't become wood; and a Bangi Khel won't become a man.
  بنګ به لرګي نه شي، بنګي خيل به سړي نه شي
  Bang is the hemp plant. And Bangi Khels were formerly great thieves
   

• Though your father was a Jatt, you are a Jatikin
  که پلار دې جټ ؤه، ته جټکي يي
  Meaning your father was a fellow of the baser sort, but you - you are immeasurably more despicable. Pathans look on Jatts with the same lofty contempt with which some Englishmen regard many of the native races - say Bengalis.
   

• The full stomach speaks Persian.
  ډک نس فارسي وايي
  Those who spoke Persian were formerly either fat priests or Ulema (the religious clergy), or in Durrani times representatives of the ruling power who visited the valley. All such were, compared with the inhabitants, rich and well fed men, and consequently arrogant. The meaning now is, that good feeding makes a man proudful.
   

• The diminisher of faith is lies, of mulberries butter-milk.
  د ايمان زوال دروغ دي، د تو تو زوال دوغ دي
  Mulberries are ripe in Bannu in April or May, and as the tree is common on every road, the fruit is plentiful. During the season the Bannuchis and their village dogs even gorge their full, and drink butter-milk afterwards to promote digestion. The saying, as noted, is common but silly.
   

• Become a thief, may God be with you.
  ځه غل شه، رب دې مل شه
  Said by the Marwats, of what the Betani says to their children when they are born. The Marwats have always accused the Bettanis for grabbing land from them, for highway robberies, and of course kidnappings. These accusations are even touted in today's time. If the Betanis have a problem with the government, they block the roads passing through Marwat territories to show protest. Hence, the Marwat resentment.
   

• Big Eyed
  غوټ سترګي
  The Bettanis in turn laugh at the Marwats for having big eyes. Marwat lands seldom see any rain and are therefore mostly dry and sandy whereas its people searched all of the heavens but still didn't find any rain; hence they remained big eyed. The Bettanis reply saying since they don't have any thing of value in their fields, why complain about us grabbing them.

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