I’m back!! Here is the third installment in our series on Saamethalu (Telugu Proverbs).

The Saametha is the Telugu contribution to poetically pithy statements of wisdom. There is an excellent site that specializes in only that.  Here is another  selection from their collection:

Saamethalu

Na bangara putta lo chey pedthey kutta na

If you put your hand in my dearest den, won’t I sting?

Appu chaesi pappu koodu

Eating on borrowed money

Baavi lo kappalaa…

Oblivious to the world, “like a frog in a well”

 Bharinchey vaadu bharta

The one who bears the burden is the husband

Dongaku donga buddhi, doraku dora buddhi

A thief behaves like a thief, a dora behaves like a dora

Gaadidha kemi telusu ghandam vaasana

What does a donkey know of sandalwood’s aroma

Goda meedha reypu

The tomorrow, which will never come

Guruvunu minchina sishyudu

The student whose surpassed the teacher

Kondanu thovvi elukanu pattinatlu.

Tear down the mountain to catch a rat

Manishiki maatey alankaram

Words are ornaments to the cultured person

Manishi ki okka maata, gedhu ki okka debba

A word for a person, a slap for a buffalo