Proverbs (refranes) used in the DR.

[Norma Rosa]

1. Ojos que no ven, coraz?n que no siente. Out of sight, out of mind.
(Lit: Eyes that do not see, hart that does not feel.)


2. Ir de Guatemala a Guatepeor. Out of the pan and into the fire.
(Lit.: To go from Guatebad to Guateworse.)

3. ?Ojo, hay moros en la costa! Walls have ears.
(Lit.: Watch out, there are moors on the coast!
Spain must have invented that one.

 

[carls]

this one is for whoever who is a Dominican;I will leave it here as a guess.

What was supposed to happens after we said this:

Maria la oz,tu madre es puta y la mia no.

 

[Mirador]

this one is for whoever who is a Dominican;I will leave it here as a guess.

What was supposed to happens after we said this:

Maria la oz,tu madre es puta y la mia no.

I've heard it since I was a child, and have even taught the game. It is played by getting close to the shore line, and cajoling the female spirit of the sea, the godess of the sea, for a large braking wave to spray all those around, by shouting repeteadly, "Mar?a La O, Mar?a La O, tu madre es puta y la m?a no".

I haven't been able to trace it's origin, either to Europe or Aboriginal America. Mar?a la O, or Mar?a La Onza is also represented with a snake, I surmise because of its symbolic association with (snaking) rivers, like the Amazon and the Orinoco, where a folk religious cult was born around an Indian water godess known as Maria Lionza. The most popular folk religious cult in Venezuela is the adoration of Mar?a Lionza, with its largest ceremonial site centered in the mountains of Sorte, Yaracuy, Venezuela. Maria Lionza is part of a wider folk religious cult, known as Las Tres Potencias, represented iconically with Mar?a Lionza as central figure, a naked voluptuous woman riding bareback on a tapir, a totemic animal for the Piaroa and other Venezuelan and Amazonian Indian ethnic groups, and flanked by a legendary Indian Chieftain, Guaicaipuro, and a black man, known as El Negro Primero, a legendary warrior of African descent who fought alongside Simon Bolivar, The Liberator...

 

[macocael]

Here is part II.


1. Aunque se vista de ceda mono se queda Something like "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

2. ?rbol que nace torcido, nunca su rama endereza Close to "The fruit never falls far from the tree.

3. Cr?a cuervo y te sacaran los ojos this is a toughie. It means "to bite the hand that feeds you." A wonderful image.

4. Lo que hace la mano derecha no lo puede saber la izquierda Something along the lines of destroying with your feet, what you've just built with your hands. There is something in english like this but I can't remember it now.


5. El hombre propone, y Dios dispone. Another not easily taken into English: Man proposes and God decides. Said when one is making plans.


HB

Great list of sayings. These all have their English equivalents: number one is basically, a Monkey in a suit is still a monkey.

Number two is not so much the fruit never falls far from the tree (chip off the old block is what we often say), a saying that expresses common relationship, but rather that there is no correcting one's nature. Willie Colon used this in the chorus to his famous song about a gay man dying of AIDS (El Varon).

NUmber three is similar to "Lie down with dogs and you get up with fleas" but we do have another way of saying that which is even closer; i just cannot think of it at the moment.

Number four is common in ENglish, the left hand doesnt know what the right is doing.

NUmber five also common in English -- Man Proposes, God Disposes -- and it is also the title of a famous painting by Sir Edwin Landseer.

Here is a rather salty phrase from my Mother in law:

Mear no es Sacudir. I will leave you all to figure that one out, but basically it means that good intentions are not the same as actually finishing a project, that there is a difference between beginning and ending. We have similar sayings in English.

 

[Mirador]

Just like a typical Dominican, I left for the last day to renew my concealed weapons licenses (actually, this time around you have to pay separately the possession and carry-on licenses). It so happens that in the back of the form (payment deposit slip), there's a legend under Observaciones, which reads, "El que paga mal, paga dos veces, por lo que no hay devoluci?n de la suma pagada."

El que paga mal, paga dos veces would make a good proverb, with a similar meaning to lo barato sale caro.

 

[carls]

1.brincar la tablita.
2.estar pepillito.

 

[carls]

as you might see, dominican use a lot baseball world terms in order to express daily situations.For exemple:

1.bateo y corrido. means that you kept on doing something when you should've stoped or or you deserved to take a rest.

 

[cuas]

mojar la mano= what you pay to a bucon
mas loco que un reloj de a peso= crazier than a dollar watch (cheap watch sometimes does not work properly)

 

[Norma Rosa]

No son cuentas de tu rosario. None of your business.
(Lit.: Those are not beads from your rosary.)

 

[Norma Rosa]

1.brincar la tablita.
2.estar pepillito.

#1?

#2 To dress up

-Hijo, ve b??ate y ponte pepillo que tu pap? va a llegar pronto.

 

[NALs]

Cuando Cuca bailaba

Means "that was a loooong time ago!


HB

"En el tiempo de la Gu?cara."

Means the samething.

-NALs

 

[Mirador]

"En el tiempo de la Gu?cara."

Means the samething.

-NALs

NaLs, you know that gu?cara is cave in Taino. So maybe the refrain means when we lived in caves! or since the time of the cave dwellers!

 

[Mirador]

2.estar pepillito.

Not sure about this one being originally from the DR. I've never heard it here. However, I've heard the expression estar pepito in Venezuela, which means to be very presentably dressed, like spiffy, spick-and-span. There are other related expression in Venezuela, like est?s como una pepa, which carries a similar meaning, and also pepiado, which means very good, very tasteful...

 

[carls]

#1?

#2 To dress up

-Hijo, ve b??ate y ponte pepillo que tu pap? va a llegar pronto.

1.brincar la tablita... means that a young girl is beginig to have sex
intercourse without get marry,usually hiden from their parents.

for exemple, mary's dauther has strange behaviour lately,her hip is wider and
she sways it a lot, her breast are bigger and she stlye her hair
better. she must be brincando la tablita.

 

[Mirador]

1.brincar la tablita... means that a young girl is beginig to have sex
intercourse without get marry,usually hiden from their parents.

for exemple, mary's dauther has strange behaviour lately,her hip is wider and
she sways it a lot, her breast are bigger and she stlye her hair
better. she must be brincando la tablita.

Must be a new urban meaning for the traditional children's rhyme, that goes like this...

Brinca la tablita,
que yo la brinque,
br?ncala t? ahora,
que yo me cans?.​

 

[Norma Rosa]

Brinca la tablita

Must be a new urban meaning for the traditional children's rhyme, that goes like this...

Brinca la tablita,
que yo la brinque,
br?ncala t? ahora,
que yo me cans?.​

Dos y dos son cuatro
cuatro y dos son s?is,
s?is y dos son ocho
y ocho diez y s?is.

Ya pit? la barca
ya pit? el vapor,
se me va mi hijo
de mi coraz?n.

Two groups of girls (never boys) formed two lines facing each other and holding hands. One line would walk towards the other singing one stanza: With the first verse the line moved forward, back with the second verse, forward with the third and back with the last one, then the second stanza by the other group, and so on. We ended it by everyone singing the first stanza ( brinca la tablita . . . ) while jumping around.
Oh! Those were the good days! Certainly not related to Carls' post.

 

[Mirador]

Brincando la tablita, in the sense that poster carls suggests, is not a Dominican refrain. In any case, if it is used at all in the DR, it would be in the sense of fleeing the scene, getting away.

 

[carls]

theses one are very popular:
1. la pava ya no pone donde ponia.
2. el horno ya no esta para galletica.
3. el burro no come biscochito.
4. uno no nace para ser semilla
5. cuando llueava para arriva.

 

[Norma Rosa]

Yerba mala nunca muere. (A bad weed never dies.)

In reference to the good luck that at times falls over the wicked ones.

 

[Chip]

New one learned recently from a good friend. This guy gets me in stiches a lot:

"Cuanta carne y yo sin dientes"