“‘So-much-the-worse’ has no cabin.”[131]--[_Louisiana._]
[131] This proverb is the retort for the phrase: “So much the worse
for you.” Sometimes one might hear a colored servant for example,
warning the children of the house to keep out of the kitchen, which in
Creole residences usually opens into the great court-yard where the
little ones play: _Eh, pitis! faut pas restér là: vous ka casser
tout!_ (“Hey! little ones, musn’t stay there: you’ll break
everything!”) If the father or mother should then exclaim “_Tant pis
pour eux!_”--so much the worse for them if they do break everything,
you would hear the old woman reply: “_Tant-pis n’a pas
cabane!_”--“So-much-the-worse has no cabin”--_i.e._, nothing to lose.
She believes in an ounce of prevention rather than a pound of cure.
309. Temps moune connaîte l’aûte nans grand jou, nans nouîte yeaux pas
bisoèn chandelle pou clairér yeaux. (Quand on connait quelqu’un [lit: un
autre] dans le grand jour, dans la nuit on n’a pas besoin d’une
chandelle pour s’éclairer.)
“When one person knows another by broad daylight, he doesn’t need a
candle to recognize him at night.”[132]--[_Trinidad._]
[132] When a person has once given us positive evidence of his true
character, we do not need any information as to what that person will
do under certain circumstances.
310. * Temps present gagnin assez comme ça avec so quenne. (Le temps
present en a assez comme ça avec le sien.)
“The present has enough to do to mind its own
affairs.”[133]--[_Louisiana._]
[133] Literally the proverb is almost untranslateable. It is cited to
those who express needless apprehension of future misfortune. “_Mo va
gagnin malhé_”--(I am going to have trouble.) “_Aïe, aïe!
chère!--temps present gagnin assez comme ça avec so quonne._” (Ah, my
dear! the present has enough trouble of its own.)