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> A poor man, but chased by beggars Creditors seldom ask a rich man to repay a debt. Only when a man has lost all his money do they come asking. |
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> You pluck the fruit and pick it up; what of us? Why don't you share or let us participate in your activity?/Why are you the only one to laugh at your joke? Usually one person climbs the tree or uses a long stick to knock down the fruit while an assistant shares the task and rewards by catching the falling fruit or picking it up. The saying may be applied to a person who prepares something to eat by himself, then eats it without sharing. It can apply also to a person who laughs at his own joke, leaving his audience unmoved. |
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> Like taro, though the leaves are tall, still immature. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is mature only when the leaves produced by the plant are small. When the plant produces its largest leaves the tuber in the ground is still quite small. The saying may be applied to a person who, while yet young and inexperienced, is proud and boastful. |
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> Even though we fix our own betel-nut, we get burned. Chemachel is a "betelnut package" consisting of the seeded nut, the pepper leaf (kebui), and the lime (chaus). By applying too much lime to a "package" it is possible to burn one's mouth. Although this is sometimes done among young people to signal another secretly of sexual attraction, typically it happens accidentally. The idiom implies that everyone makes mistakes; it can't be helped. No matter how careful we are, we sometimes fail; we shouldn't be too sure or overconfident in ourselves. |
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> But our heart is our sister-in-law. A husband's sister is said to spy on her brother's wife during his absence from home. Reference is to a young wife who refused the advances of a young man, even though it was obvious that no sister-in-law was present to spy. Asked about her relationship with the young suitor, the wife replied: "But my heart is my sister-in-law." The saying may be applied more widely to any circumstance where a person is entrusted with a task without supervision. |
