Armenian proverbs

Proverbs from all Armenian speaking parts of the world.

Ա

• Արևն ամպի տակ չի մնայ։
  • Transliteration: Arevn ampi tak chi mnay.
  • Translation: The sun won't stay behind the cloud.
  • Meaning: The truth won't stay hidden and will come out.
  • English equivalent: A lie has short legs.
  • "Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well."
  • Samuel Butler, The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
  • Književnost. 1986. 

Խ

• Խնձորը ծառից հեռու չի ընկնում։
  • Transliteration: Khndzorë tsarits' heru chi ënknum.
  • Translation: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
  • Meaning: Children observe daily and — in their behaviour — often follow the example of their parents.
  • Այգեկցի, Ավագյան (2004). Առյուծը, աղվեսնուարջը: Առակ: Նախադպր. եւկրտսերդպր. տարիքիհամար. Արեւիկ. pp. 16. 
  • Source for meaning: Paczolay, Gyula (1997). European Proverbs in 55 languages. DeProverbio.com. p. 259. ISBN 1-875943-44-7. 

Կ

• Կարմիր կովը կաշին չի փոխի։
  • Transliteration: Karmir kovë kashin chi p'okhi.
  • Translation: The red cow won't change his hide.
  • Meaning: Some people don't change.
  • "Armenian Proverbs and the Biblical Scripture": 7.

Ո

• Ուշ լինի, (ա)նուշ լինի։
  • Ush lini, (a)nush lini.
  • Translation: Let it be late, let it be good.
  • Meaning: It does not matter if something takes long to complete, as long as the end result is desirable.
  • Pinter (2006). Art, Truth \& Politics: The Nobel Lecture. Faber \& Faber. pp. 24. ISBN 0571233961. 

Literature

• Armenian Proverbs and Sayings, Translated into English by R. Gevorg Bayyan, Academy of St. Lazarus, Venice, 1889. (Alternative link)
• Bläsing, Uwe. The state of Armenian paremiology and its future tasks. Iran and the the Caucusus 7:1-2: 195-207.
• Sakayan, Dora. 1999. On Reported and Direct Speech in Proverbs. Dialogue Proverbs in Armenian. Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship Vol. 16, 1999, pp. 303–324.
• Armenian Proverbs and the Biblical Scripture, Gayané V. Hagopian, California State University, Northridge.
• The Antiquity of Proverbs: Fifty Familiar Proverbs and Folk Sayings with Annotations and Lists of Connected Forms, Found in All Parts of the World, Dwight Edwards Marvin, G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1922.