Mano Abenancio ‘sabía munchos’ proverbs
Era una sad morning cuando la familia got up. Habían munchos clouds en el cielo that hid casi todo el sol. La campana en la iglesia tolled slowly “din-darn, din-darn, din-darn,” announcing the death de un hombre in the valley. Grama stopped su trabajo in the kitchen where she was sacándole el hollín a la estufa. She was toda covered with the very soot that she had pulled out from the stove and she paused to listen to the tolling church bell.
“I think que la bell de la iglesia está doblando para anunciar la muerte de Mano Abenancio,” she remarked. “Él era un hombre muy sabio.”
“Why do you say that Mano Abenancio was a very wise man, grama?” Canutito asked her. “Did he discover algo muy bueno or write un libro bien suave?”
“Wisdom is measured de muchas maneras, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca replied. “Una persona no tiene que descubrir something nice o escribir good books. La sabiduría is wisdom que viene de la vida; it comes from living con dignidad y compasión for everyone else.”
“¿Cuándo fue la first time that you noticed que Mano Abenancio era un wise man, grama?” Canutito asked her con gran curiosidad.
“It was at a village picnic cuando yo era niña,” she replied. I had thrown a piece of bread to a stray dog que había venido begging por algo para comer. Cuando Mano Abenancio saw me tirarle el pan al perro, he said: ‘El que le da pan al perro ajeno, pierde el pan y pierde el perro.’ I just looked over to him pero yo no entendía what he was trying to say.”
Canutito tried to figure it out so hizo translate el dicho into English: “Whosoever gives bread to a stray dog loses the bread and then loses the dog. Este dicho sounds mucho como el proverbio en la Biblia that says: ‘Cast not your pearls before swine.’ ”
“Ahora you are catching on, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said to him. “Munchos de los dichos que tenemos aquí en esta parte del mundo are probably based en los proverbios that are found in the Bible.”
“I just thought about un otro dicho, grama,” Canutito said: “El perro, el ratón y el gato, nunca comen del mismo plato. I wonder what that one means?”
“In English, it says: ‘The dog and the mouse and the cat never eat from the same plate.’ Yo creyo que it means que animales diferentes no hacen hang around juntos. En otras palabras, los animales que son similares son los only ones who eat del mismo plato.”
“I got it!” Canutito squealed. I think que en Inglés el proverb es ‘birds of a feather, flock together.’ I think que los English lo agarraron de los Greeks.”
“Mano Abenancio would have been muy proud of you, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca said. Y luego she added, “You are a bright light in a dark world.”
En ese momento Grampo Caralampio came in y se sentó en la cocina. Canutito turned and asked him, “Grampo, ¿cómo se dice: ‘you are a bright light en un dark world’?”
“I believe que that would be: “Tú eres una lámpara bien hecha,” he replied.
“No it isn’t, viejo!” Grama Cuca pitched in. “‘Tú eres una lámpara bien hecha’ in English means: “You are a low-down, sneaky swindler!”
“¡Ay, Dios mío!” Canutito exclaimed. “Yo no quiero ser un ‘low-down, sneaky swindler’! I just want to know algunos buenos dichos de aquí and maybe a few proverbios de la Biblia.” Grama Cuca could tell que Canutito ya era un poco wise ...